“How effective is the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine?” new study asks

Researchers have studied the efficacy of the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in residents of long-term care facilities.

The study found that the fourth dose of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine reduced all-cause mortality by about 40 per cent during the first two months in long-term care facilities residents, News Medical confirmed on Monday, July 18.

Previously, a Canadian study reported a 40 per cent reduction in COVID-19-related hospitalisation or death in long-term care facilities residents from the fourth dose compared to the third dose.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) at the University of Saskatchewan, said: “That fourth dose does add a small, modest decrease to your risk of developing severe illness.”

“But I think that also it’s limited what we can expect from it, I don’t think certainly that we can expect it to stop this wave,” she added.

The study comes after a report stated that the effectiveness of Covid vaccines against serious diseases falls to zero and becomes negative within 12 months, according to official figures from the Netherlands.

A report published this week by the Dutch Ministry of Health explains that there is “virtually no visible protective effect” for people who have received two doses of the vaccine, according to Anguille sous Roche on Sunday, July 17.

This is because “it is now almost a year since they were vaccinated, and the protection offered by the vaccines against hospitalisation decreases over time“.

Using hospitalisation figures from 15 March to 28 June 2022, the report finds that the overall effectiveness of the two-dose and above vaccine against hospitalisation was 0 per cent.