What the Israeli data show is that a booster can enhance protection for a few weeks in older adults — a result that is unsurprising, experts said, and does not indicate long-term benefit.
“What I would predict will happen is that the immune response to that booster will go up, and then it will contract again,” said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. “But is that three- to four-month window what we’re trying to accomplish?”
I think the main dispute with the study was that it had limited data over a short period of time and many officials feel the vax distribution needs to be given to the unvaxxed first rather than pushing boosters to all age groups.
On Monday, an international group of scientists, which included the departing F.D.A. officials, decried the push for boosters. In their review, published in The Lancet, the scientists analyzed dozens of studies and concluded that the world would be better served by using vaccine doses to protect the billions of people around the world who remain unvaccinated.
The Israel study:
Protection of BNT162b2 Vaccine Booster against Covid-19 in Israel
I would say the main point of the study is that the variant in circulation now is sufficiently different than the old vaccine that giving such a failing vaccine to old people as a third shot is throwing away a shot that might protect 30% of those who get it who were never vaccinated.
Of course, this practically means that the older person not getting the third dose is likely to have a really bad infection, if that third shot was truly protective for at least 12 days. Older people need much stronger doses of vaccines for them to work, as we know from special flu shots for the elderly.