3 Doses Of Pfizer Vaccine Or 2 Doses Of Pfizer With Moderna Booster Significantly Reduce Infection Risk
As the booster shots are being rolled out to Singapore residents, many have grown curious about the effectiveness of various combinations.
On Monday (15 Nov), Health Minister Ong Ye Kung shed some light on the topic.
According to a Ministry of Health (MOH) study, getting a booster shot with either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine helps further reduce the risk of infection by over 60%.
2 doses of Pfizer vaccine & Moderna booster most effective
During the Multi-Ministry Task Force press conference on Monday (15 Nov), Minister Ong shared some statistics about the booster shot combinations.
MOH recently conducted a study on the relative effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine booster shots to reduce infection risks.
It found that taking the Moderna booster after 2 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech will reduce infection risk by 72%.
This has a slight edge over taking a Pfizer booster after 2 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which has a 62% reduction.
The last combination of a Pfizer booster shot after 2 doses of Moderna vaccine does not have a large sample size, and Minister Ong said it might not yield meaningful statistics.
The Health Minister also shared that he and MOH director of medical services Kenneth Mak received a Moderna booster shot after 2 doses of Pfizer.
94% of eligible population vaccinated
Minister Ong also gave an update on Singapore’s vaccine coverage. As of 14 Nov, 85% of our population has been fully inoculated.
The figure might seem lower than the reported numbers in other countries as Singapore reports vaccine coverage against the total population.
Comparatively, some countries report vaccine coverage against the eligible population.
In Singapore, the 15% who are unvaccinated consists of:
- 1% – not living in Singapore
- 9% – children below 12 who are not eligible
- 5% – eligible but choose not to be vaccinated
Based on the eligible population, Singapore is around 94% vaccinated. Minister Ong added that this is one of the highest coverages globally.
From 15 Nov, MOH will be providing both numbers in their daily press releases to provide a full picture of our vaccination progress.
Getting vaccinated reduces risk of severe illness
Transitioning to living with Covid-19 will take some time to get used to, and we must take the necessary measures to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
This means getting our vaccines, including the booster shots, as recommended.
After all, we have seen how effective vaccines are, with over 99% of fully vaccinated Covid-19 cases having little to no symptoms.
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Featured image adapted from NTUC Income.
