A health care worker prepares to administer a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a person at a drive-thru site in Tropical Park on December 16, 2021 in Miami, Florida.

A health care worker prepares to administer a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a person at a drive-thru site in Tropical Park on December 16, 2021 in Miami, Florida. oe Raedle/Getty Images

How Long Does COVID-19 Vaccine Protection Last?

COVID vaccines provide protection, but immunity wanes over time. Researchers found a drop from 83% after the first month to 22% after five or more months.

Protection against symptomatic COVID-19 begins to decrease after one month from initial vaccination, while immunity against severe COVID-19 remains high for about six months, according to a new study.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 7 million unvaccinated and vaccinated people. The latter received Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis, the investigators examined 18 peer-reviewed studies published from December 2019 to November 2021, prior to emergence of the Omicron variant that dominated the most recent pandemic surge in the US.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 577 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the nation. Vaccinated individuals may wonder how long the vaccine provides protection against the coronavirus.

The research shows the vaccines provided significant protection against COVID-19, but effectiveness waned over time. After full vaccination, immunity against COVID-19 infection decreased from 83% after the first month to 22% after five or more months.

The research included data on adults and children, aged 12 and older. The findings showed that recipients of the Moderna vaccine experienced the highest levels of protection.

Fully vaccinated people are defined as those who received two doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, as well as people who received one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The researchers did not have data beyond six months, and the study did not include data on booster vaccines.

“It is reassuring to see that individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 maintained strong protection against hospitalization and death over time even when effectiveness against infection waned,” says senior author Catharine Paules, assistant professor in the department of medicine at Penn State. “More data are needed specific to protection against the Omicron variant.”

The researchers say that vaccines remained 90% effective against severe COVID for up to six months. However, protection against severe COVID-19 was lower (74%) for people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. According to the study, immunity against COVID-19 decreased more rapidly for people 65 or older, regardless of which vaccine they received.

“It’s important to note that the rate of waning of vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 is not uniform. Elderly populations had a higher rate of waning effectiveness,” says Paddy Ssentongo, assistant professor for the department of public health sciences and lead author of the study in BMC Infectious Diseases.

“Future studies should focus on showing how vaccine protection lasts for various comorbidities and immune suppression status.”

The researchers note that overall efficacy could depend on several factors, including vaccine type, patient age, emerging variants, and geographic areas. According to the CDC, subsequent doses of the vaccine are recommended as time passes to help boost immunity and mitigate the threat of COVID-19. Evidence shows that booster doses can provide a short-term increase in protection against COVID-19 infection and symptomatic disease.

“COVID-19 vaccines are critical for ending the pandemic, and even if their effectiveness against infection wanes, they provide key and important protection against severe COVID-19 disease that can lead to hospitalization,” Ssentongo says. “Future studies will need to explore the evolution of effectiveness against Omicron and newer variant-related hospitalizations.”

The authors note that a high degree of variation in factors such as study designs, follow-up lengths, geographical location, vaccine types, and variants of the virus might have influenced the results.

The researchers declare no conflicts of interest or specific funding for this research.

Source: Penn State

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.