Kay Burley slams guest for ‘absurd’ point in vaccine debate
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Health leaders across Britain have been urging those most vulnerable to get their third booster Covid vaccines as the winter draws nearer. In the week when the booster jabs rollout was extended to all those aged 40 and above, Express.co.uk has examined the latest data about the Covid vaccines and looked into just how effective these jabs are at protecting people from the virus and its potentially fatal consequences.
The booster vaccine provides “significant increased protection” against symptomatic Covid in those aged 50 and above, regardless of which vaccine they initially received.
A new study from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) found two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca was 44.1 percent effective against symptomatic disease, compared to 62.5 percent for the Pfizer jab.
Two weeks after receiving the booster dose, protection against the disease rose to 93.1 percent in those initially jabbed with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Those who received Pfizer originally saw protection increase to 94 percent.
The UKHSA head of immunisation Mary Ramsay said, “We know that in older age groups, protection from the first two vaccines is beginning to wear off, leaving millions that need extra protection as we head into winter.
“That is why it is critical that you come forward for your booster as soon as you become eligible so we can drive down hospital admissions and deaths over the winter.”
Professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia Paul Hunter said the study shows the true effectiveness of booster shots.
He said: “It confirms what has been reported from Israel about the impressive effectiveness of the booster dose.
“This is perhaps even more impressive when considering that a significant proportion of people who have not yet had their booster will have had an infection and so had some additional protection now.
“This report also gives reassurance that whether someone had AstraZeneca or Pfizer as their first course, the booster provides similar excellent protection.”
There is a stark increase in vaccine protection in those aged 70 and over, according to a chart shared by Paul Mainwood based on UKHSA data.
The apparent waning in vaccine protection against cases may be reversing in the oldest cohorts.
Vaccine protection hit its lowest point for these groups around the 38 to 41 week period.
After which time the impact of booster shots can be shown to reverse the downward trend – indicating an improvement in vaccine protection for the 70+ age groups.
The chart shows those in the youngest groups currently have the highest growth/decline in vaccinated and unvaccinated rates since the first period as they have not yet received booster shots.
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Health experts have said they can be confident unvaccinated numbers are not changing much over time.
This is because the rate of first and second dose vaccinations have slowed in recent weeks across most age groups.
Overall, 88.2 percent of those aged 12 and over have received one Covid dose, 80.2 percent have received two doses and 24.8 percent have received a booster or third dose as of November 19.
The latest NHS England vaccination report, including data up to November 14, shows around nine in 10 individuals aged 18 and over have been vaccinated with at least one dose.
More than eight in 10 adults aged 18 and over have received two doses.
The vaccination chart reveals the extent of vaccination changes depending on the age group.
Those aged 12 to 17 have the lowest rates of vaccination so far as they have been able to get jabbed for the least amount of time.
There is a pattern of increasing vaccine uptake as age increases, although it does dip slightly for those aged 65 to 74, compared to those aged 60 to 64.
Vaccine hesitancy stood at four percent, according to the Office for National Statistics latest report published in August based on adults in Great Britain from June 23 to July 18.
It appeared to have decreased slightly among the youngest age groups compared with the previous period.
Aversion to the Covid vaccine stood at 11 percent among those aged 16 to 17 years, down from 14 percent in the previous period.
In total five percent of those aged 18 to 21 years had vaccine hesitancy, down four percentage points from the previous report and it stood at nine percent for those aged 22 to 25 years, compared to 10 percent in the previous period.
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