MedPageToday New analysis of Moderna’s COVE trial looked at best time for boosters
A yearly booster with an mRNA-based COVID vaccine may provide the best protection against catching the pandemic disease, a new analysis of the phase III COVE trial suggested.
“Interestingly, we found that the longer duration between boosting actually provides better protection against COVID-19,” Dean Follmann, PhD, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, said here at the IDWeek annual meeting. There was a 24% reduced risk of catching Omicron if the time between the original vaccination and booster was 12.9 months compared with 8.2 months, he reported. Follmann explained that in the original COVE trial — the study that led to emergency use authorization of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine — it became apparent that the effectiveness of the vaccine waned after a period of months, and the trial protocol was amended to allow for boosters. However, because the amendment occurred during the trial, participants were given boosters at different times. This gave researchers a chance to employ statistical methods to calculate when the best times for giving boosters would be.