People aged 65 years or older have a better chance of remaining protected against severe illness or death from COVID-19 if all three of their vaccine shots were the Moderna vaccine, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday.
Seniors who received three Moderna vaccine shots have a protection effectiveness of 90.5 percent against moderate to severe COVID-19, and 93.1 percent against the risk of death, CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said at Friday’s press briefing.
Three shots of the Moderna vaccine offered the highest protection among other mix-and-match combinations for people aged 65 or older, Chuang said, citing data from a vaccine efficiency analysis report published the same day.
In terms of the 18-64 age group, Chuang went on, the combination with the highest protection effectiveness against moderate to severe COVID-19 illness was two Medigen vaccine shots combined with a Pfizer-BioNTech booster jab, at 97.9 percent.
For protection against the risk of death for those aged between 18 and 64 years old, the best combination was two Moderna shots with a Pfizer-BioNTech booster jab, at 96.5 percent, Chuang said.
However, the report also showed that the protection effectiveness for seniors aged 65 or older who received two AstraZeneca shots and a jab of another vaccine brand as a booster, ranged from just over 30 percent to over 50 percent.
The combination with two AstraZeneca doses as the first and second shots also had slightly lower protection than other combinations of different vaccines for the 18-64 age group, according to the report.
In the face of emerging variant viruses, Chuang suggested that those who received two initial doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine should choose a next-generation bivalent vaccine for their booster shot.
The report by Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) analyzes the effects of three shots of all vaccine brands (Moderna, AsatraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Medigen) used in the nation since its vaccination program was rolled out on March 22 last year.
Analysis in the report takes into account data for 23 million people in Taiwan, and over 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to Chuang.
The results show that getting vaccinated against COVID-19, regardless of vaccine combination, reduces the occurrence of moderate to severe illness and death when compared with outcomes for individuals who were unvaccinated, the CECC official said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel