People who received AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for their first two doses should consider getting booster doses of next-generation vaccines for better protection against severe infection, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
The CECC made the recommendation after announcing the results of a study of vaccine efficacy against COVID-19.
Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) data were used, with calculations based on administration of the first shot, said CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the CECC’s spokesman.
Photo: CNA
Vaccines helped mitigate or prevent the development of severe symptoms and decreased mortality rates compared with those who did not get vaccinated, Chuang said.
The research showed that regardless of the combination of shots, those who got three doses were better protected than others, he said.
The Moderna vaccine ranked highest in preventing severe symptoms, with 90.5 percent of people older than 65 who got three Moderna vaccine shots being shielded from the worst of the disease, while those who received two jabs of Moderna and one of Taiwan’s homegrown Medigen vaccine were second at 89.1 percent, the CECC said.
Among 18 to 64-year-olds, 97.9 percent of those who got two Moderna and one Medigen shot were the best protected, the CECC said.
Elderly people with three shots of Moderna were 93.1 percent shielded from the possibility of dying from the disease, it said, adding that those who got two Moderna and one Medigen jab were 92.3 percent protected.
In the 18-to-64 age bracket, 96.5 percent of those who got two Moderna and one Medigen shot were the best protected, it said.
However, elderly people who have had two AstraZeneca shots would only have 30 to 50 percent protection against death or severe symptoms with a third such shot, it said.
People aged 18 to 64 face a similar decrease in protection by getting three AstraZeneca jabs compared with other brands, it said.
Meanwhile, the CECC yesterday reported 18,003 new COVID-19 infections and 58 new deaths from the disease.
The deceased ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s, and all but four had underlying health issues, while 32 were unvaccinated against COVID-19, it said.
The center also reported 47 new cases classified as moderate and 44 classified as severe.
There were no reported cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
The 17,952 new domestic cases represented a 11.4 percent drop from a week earlier.
With the 58 deaths reported yesterday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in the nation rose to 13,849.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS