About 0.4% said they suffered from difficulty breathing, and 1% said they sought medical treatment due to one or more side effect.
worrisome, and how I reconciled it.
When I posted that, I reached out to Maayan Hoffman, one of the authors of the original Israeli article, with these observations. She found these interesting enough that she reached out to Ran Balicer, the head of the study (Head of Research at Clalit Health), with my observations, and then she forwarded his response to me:
We used ACTIVE screening for AE—we surveyed 22% of the vaccinees. [The other report cited] (https://www.timesofisrael.com/of-600000-israelis-who-received-3rd-dose-fewer-than-50-reported-side-effects/) [includes] PASSIVE reports of AE that the vaccinees choose to share with the reporting system. These are complementary systems. Just like in the US and other countries. Both are important. … What we did is quite unprecedented. In terms of timing (same day—proactive calls—data gathering—analysis—informing the public). On 4500! People − 22% of all those with 7d experience after the 3rd shot. Even in Covid—I don’t think anyone has achieved anything like this. A clear message for the public to get vaccinated.
My thoughts:
There’s still something uncomfortable about the 0.4% having difficulty breathing to me. Based of what I cited previously from the Moderna study, and this additional context of active monitoring, the 1% seeking medical attention seems notable but not a big deal (after all, it matches placebo in the Moderna trial). It was still an update vs. my expectations when originally seeing it.
I think this makes me mildly more hesitant than before about the booster shot, but I definitely strongly believe the booster shot is worthwhile (in isolation, e.g. not considering global fungibility). Also, it’s not at all clear that this result is unique to booster-recipients vs. earlier vaccine reactions.
This is a follow-up to https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/RRoCQGNLrz5vuGQYW/josh-jacobson-s-shortform?commentId=pZN32PZQuBMHtM8aS , where I noted that I found the following sentence in an article about an Israeli study on 3rd shot boosters:
worrisome, and how I reconciled it.
When I posted that, I reached out to Maayan Hoffman, one of the authors of the original Israeli article, with these observations. She found these interesting enough that she reached out to Ran Balicer, the head of the study (Head of Research at Clalit Health), with my observations, and then she forwarded his response to me:
My thoughts:
There’s still something uncomfortable about the 0.4% having difficulty breathing to me. Based of what I cited previously from the Moderna study, and this additional context of active monitoring, the 1% seeking medical attention seems notable but not a big deal (after all, it matches placebo in the Moderna trial). It was still an update vs. my expectations when originally seeing it.
I think this makes me mildly more hesitant than before about the booster shot, but I definitely strongly believe the booster shot is worthwhile (in isolation, e.g. not considering global fungibility). Also, it’s not at all clear that this result is unique to booster-recipients vs. earlier vaccine reactions.