It’s official, the vaccine goal posts keep moving. This isn’t new, no one expects 1 flu shot to protect you from flu season forever.
But as the CDC approves a second COVID-19 mRNA booster, it does raise two important questions:
1. Is having 4 shots of Pfizer (a second Booster) going to protect me from COVID?
2. And even if it does, is having 4 jabs safe?
What is a mRNA Booster?
An mRNA Vaccine booster is an additional COVID shot of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine (Maragakis, & Kelen, 2022)
What Experts Found Out
On the 2nd of January 2022, Israel began giving people over 60 their fourth Pfizer vaccination. Scientists studied 1 252 331 of these elderly Israelis from January 10, 2022, to March 2, 2022 (Yinon et al., 2022).
Yinon et al., (2022)
, found that giving people their 2nd booster:
Bad news =
❌ The vaccine’s ability to protect the group against getting COVID spiked and then decreased during the 3 months that were studied.
Good news =
✔ The booster lowered the group’s chances of getting COVID-19.
✔ It decreased their chances of getting a serious case of COVID.
✔ This protection against serious COVID remained throughout the 3 months that were studied.
Is It Safe To Get 4 Shots Of Pfizer?
The side effects of a booster shot are similar to side effects from a first vaccine (NICD, 2022). These symptoms do not mean you are sick (Maragakis, & Kelen, 2022). They are just a signal from your body that your immune system is responding to the booster and is building up protection against COVID-19 (Maragakis, & Kelen, 2022).
How Much Immunity Does Previous Infections Offer?
After the 4th wave of COVID, 97% of South Africans had antibodies to COVID-19 due to vaccination and/or infection (Bingham et al., 2022). This is a big jump from the 45% overall immunity we found in our HUTS 1 Study in Nov 2020 to April 2021.
Yet South Africa has still gone through a 5th wave.
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