Bivalent COVID-19 vaccines provide added protection, real-world data show

Real-world data showed that bivalent messenger RNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 provided “significant additional protection” against symptomatic COVID-19 among people who had received two, three or four previous monovalent doses.

The study, published Tuesday in MMWR, evaluated the relative vaccine effectiveness of the bivalent boosters compared with receiving two or more monovalent shots during a period when omicron BA.4, BA.5 and their sublineages predominated.

“These findings support the current COVID-19 vaccination policy recommending a bivalent booster dose for adults who have completed at least a primary mRNA vaccination series, irrespective of the number of monovalent doses previously received,” researchers wrote.

Source: healiо