The new COVID-19 vaccine boosters provide poor protection against symptomatic infection, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study published Nov. 22.
Absolute vaccine effectiveness was 50 percent or lower among people who received one of the new bivalents after receipt of two or more original vaccine doses, researchers with the CDC estimated.
Among people 65 and older—the age group most at-risk of severe COVID-19—a bivalent provided just 32 percent protection at most, according to the study.
The study provides the first vaccine effectiveness estimates for the boosters, which are made by Pfizer and Moderna and were authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in late August despite no human trial data being available….