Currently, the vaccines available for COVID-19 are to be taken in two doses with a nearly four-week gap. However, one question remains – whether the vaccine will provide longer, durable protection? Some question whether they need a booster dose every year, like flu shots.
There is currently no data as such, but Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, thinks we may need a booster dose of a vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated, meaning we may need a third dose of a vaccine. He also said we may need to be vaccinated every year.
Trials conducted by Pfizer-BioNTech confirmed that the vaccine offers protection against COVID-19 for at least six months after receiving the second dose. Based on the results of Phase 3 clinical trials, the companies said their vaccine was 91.3% effective against COVID and was also 100% effective against severe illness.
Earlier this month, Moderna published similar data, indicating their mRNA-based vaccine also offers protection against the disease for six months after the second dose.
Bourla’s comments came on April 1 when CNBC’s Bertha Coombs was interviewing him during an event with CVS Health. At the time, he said, “It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus.”
Dr. David Kessler, Chief Science Officer of COVID Response Team, has reported that Americans should expect a booster shot to offer protection against the new strains of the virus, adding that although the currently approved vaccines are highly effective, the new variants affect the efficacy of the vaccines.
“We don’t know everything at this moment,” said Dr. Kessler, former FDA commissioner. “We are studying the durability of the antibody response. It seems strong but there is some waning of that and no doubt the variants challenge … they make these vaccines work harder. So I think for planning purposes, planning purposes only, I think we should expect that we may have to boost.”
Pfizer and BioNTech have already started testing the third dose of their vaccine. In March, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) started testing a new Moderna vaccine against the South African strain, according to BioSpace.
Bourla said the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine provided people with “extremely, extremely high protection” from the disease’ however, he explained that it is “very, very good news,” but “vaccine protection goes down over time.”
The Pfizer CEO said, “I think there will be a need, based on this data, for re-vaccinations. We need to see for how often we will need to do that, that remains to be seen.”
“A likely scenario is that there will likely be a need for a third dose somewhere between six and 12 months [after the initial vaccination] and from there, there will be an annual revaccination. But all of that needs to be confirmed,” he added, adding that “the variants will play a key role.” The article was published on BioSpace.
