A new study suggests that the third COVID-19 vaccine shot — the COVID-19 booster shot — can slow the spread of the omicron variant.
- The study was done by the University of Copenhagen, Statistics Denmark and Statens Serum Institut.
The study, which was published on medRxiv and was not peer-reviewed, looked at about 12,000 households in Denmark to see how fast the omicron variant could spread.
- The data showed that there was a reduced transmission of the omicron variant for those who got the third COVID-19 vaccine shot, otherwise known as the booster shot.
So far, Denmark has not seen a worst-case scenario for the COVID-19 spread. Per The Washington Post, the highly vaccinated Denmark has seen stabilized COVID-19 case numbers after a brief surge tied to the omicron variant. The country’s success — which is measured as avoiding a massive surge — may be a sign at how highly vaccinated countries could deal with the omicron variant.
- “It’s too early to relax, but it’s encouraging that we are not following the worst-case scenario,” said Tyra Grove Krause, the chief epidemiologist at Denmark’s Staten Serum Institut, per The Washington Post.
So far, it appears that your COVID-19 vaccine status may impact how many symptoms you feel from the omicron variant, as I wrote for the Deseret News. According to Dr. Craig Spencer, an emergency room doctor in New York, any patient he has seen from omicron who got a third booster COVID-19 vaccine shot had mild symptoms.
- COVID-19 patients who had two doses of Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines had mild COVID-19 symptoms, but they had more symptoms compared to those who had the booster shot.