Oxford Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Sarah Walker said the research results cast more doubts on the possibility of achieving herd immunity through vaccination.
“The hope was that unvaccinated people could protect themselves by vaccinating many people.”
“The higher levels of virus that we are seeing in these infections in vaccinated people are consistent with the fact that unvaccinated people are just going to be at higher risk, I’m afraid,” the professor explained.
Research does not show the effectiveness of vaccines against hospitalizations and severe cases of the disease, although the loss of effectiveness is an argument that is used in several countries to inject a third dose into their populations, even when countries around the world still lack a sufficient supply for the first vaccines.
Third doses in the world
The United States plans to begin offering booster vaccines on September 20 to all vaccinated American adults.
UK authorities are still deciding to what extent the reinforcements should be administered.
In Israel, which began administering third doses of Pfizer-BioNTech this month, initial results show that they have been 86% effective for people over 60 years of age.