Global analysis – Three shots best for preventing COVID-19 infections

COVID-19 vaccines have been around for quite some time now and have been promising in providing protection against the virus. These vaccines are contributing towards dealing with the pandemic. Health experts have recommended that three doses of the same COVID-19 vaccine or a combination of vaccines work equally well in preventing infections. This has been found in the largest study of its kind. While people are well aware of the effectiveness of the individual vaccines  but evidence on the combination of the shots are rare, especially among the older people and those who are immune compromised.

As per a global analysis of data from more than 100 million people has confirmed that it is the number of doses that remains as the key towards improvement of the immunity instead of the shot combinations. The findings of the study have been published in (British Medical Journal) BMJ. It says that three doses of the same vaccine or different combinations work well in preventing COVID-19 infections. They work even in case of different variants. The British Medical Journal has also pointed out that the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths are slowing down but the new variants make it important to understand which combination of vaccine is most effective.

Work is still on as the Chinese University of Hong Kong has searched for 38 WHO COVID-19 databases  for published studies. Getting three doses of the same vaccine is known as homologous regimen. Getting a third dose of vaccine that differs from the first two shots is known as the heterologous regimen.

The researchers found that getting three doses of any mRNA vaccine  seems to be the most effective with 96 percent against the non-severe COVID-19 infections. It was also 95 percent effective in  reducing the COVID-19 related hospital admissions. At the same time the effectiveness of the three dose vaccine regimens against COVID-19 related death continues to remain uncertain.

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