View attachment 7090
[Image source: the Senate hearing in question]
This image was supposed to be there
Top chart is from Moderna trial and bottom is from Pfizer Trial
The screenshot is hard on my eyes (I have been having enough issues with my vision as it is). Do you have a specific question? If it's about data I would need to see more information.
I have followed the AB data for a while, and the vaccines do seem to be rather effective for reducing hospitalizations and deaths.
Unfortunately less data is being presented now. Hospitalizations have been doing up. In some areas of the provinces wastewater is showing an upward trend for COVID, but in my area it hasn't been a big increased compared relative to the last 4ish months.
I think it's likely there are 2 reasons, different variants and protection from the vaccines is wearing off.
Boosters were showing to be really useful when Omicron BA.1 showed up. Boosters were being encouraged strongly, not just because of the protection that was wearing down a bit but also because primary series + booster seemed ideal for Omicron BA.1
With what's circulating right now, I do think the updated boosters will be helpful as they give both the protection from the booster similar to what we did previously, plus they are a better match. As circulating variants shift with time it's with hindsight we see with real world data which ended up working the best at the time. When Health Canada choose to approve the 2 updated boosters, they did so with trial data. For now, I trust they that are making the best decision with the information at hand.