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 Israel began offering the booster shots about 10 days ago to people
over age 60 as part of efforts to slow the spread of the highly
contagious Delta variant. That effectively turned Israel into a
testing ground for a third dose before approval by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration.
Israel's largest healthcare provider, Clalit, said on Sunday it had
administered a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to more
than 240,000 people.
About 4,500 people, all of whom received the booster shot from July
30 to Aug. 1, responded to questions and were included in the
survey.
Eighty-eight percent of participants in the survey said that in the
days after receiving the third shot, they felt "similar or better"
to how they felt after the second shot.
Thirty-one percent reported some side effect, the most common being
soreness at the injection site.
About 0.4% said they suffered from difficulty breathing, and 1% said
they sought medical treatment due to one or more side effect.
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 Ran Balicer, Clalit's chief
innovation officer, said that even though the
results are "initial and self-reported", they
allow a comparison of side effects with the
second dose, and "it turns out that in most
cases they are similar or less in the booster."
"Although we do not yet have long-term research
on the efficacy and safety of the third booster
dose, for the personal risk management of any
person aged 60 plus, these findings continue to
point to the benefit of immunization now, along
with careful behavior among adults and avoiding
gathering in closed spaces," Balicer said.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Peter
Cooney)
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