(ANSA) – ROME, OCTOBER 03 – The administration of the fourth dose of vaccine against Covid-19 in the elderly reduces the risk of undergoing a severe form of Covid by 74% and death by 90% compared to just three doses of vaccine. This is what emerges from a study coordinated by the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Providence, USA, published in the weekly bulletin of the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The research analyzed the data of nearly 200 American elderly care facilities between March and July last, a period in which the BA.4 and BA.5 variants replaced BA.2, comparing 1,902 people who had received the double booster with as many who they had only gotten one booster.
In these groups, 75 and 101 cases of Covid were recorded in the 60 days following vaccination, respectively, with a 25.8% reduction in the risk of contracting the infection in vaccinated people. There were 3 and 9 hospitalizations: in this case the additional dose of vaccine lowered the risk by 60.1%. There were 4 and 16 severe Covid cases, with a protection level of 73.9%. Finally, there were 1 and 8 deaths, with a risk reduction of 89.6%.
“The findings confirm the importance of continuing efforts to ensure that the nursing home population receives the recommended booster doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, including the recently licensed bivalent vaccine,” the researchers write.
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