Coronavirus vaccines still give “good protection” despite new research suggesting their effects can wear off after six months, an expert has said today.
Professor Adam Finn, member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said that while studies are showing waning immunity against mild illness some months after vaccination, the jabs are still warding off serious disease and hospital admissions.
He said: ““[It’s] encouraging actually that people who’ve had two doses are still very much well protected against serious illness, which is our main objective.
“But we do need to watch out very carefully to see if this waning begins to translate into occurrence of more severe cases because then boosters will be needed.”
His comments came as new research from the Zoe Covid study suggested that protection provided by two doses of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca Covid vaccines starts to wane within six months.
The Pfizer jab was 88 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19 infection a month after the second dose but that fell to 74 per cent after five or six months.
The AstraZeneca vaccine had a 77 per cent protection from infection one month after the second dose. After four to five months protection decreased to 67 per cent.
