What You Need to Know About COVID-19 Booster Shots

Since the U.S. began a massive country-wide vaccination effort against COVID-19 last winter, a majority of adult Americans have been immunized. But now it seems that all of them may need an additional dose next year. Public health experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stress that studies continue to show that the three vaccines currently authorized in the U.S. protect against COVID-19 disease, including against variants of the virus that are more transmissible. But as effective as the vaccines are, they can’t provide 100% immunity against disease. There is also early evidence that part of the immunity generated by the vaccines—specifically the antibodies created to stick to and block SARS-CoV-2 from infecting cells—could start to wane after about six months. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] That’s why researchers are now studying whether adding an additional dose after about a year could boost levels of immunity back up. For the two-shot vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, that would involve a third dose, while for the single shot Janssen/Johnson&Johnson vaccine, it would mean a second jab. Is a booster dose necessary? Pfizer-BioNTech reported in July that early studies involving people who were given a third dose about six months after their second dose showed strong antibody responses five to 10 times higher than levels after two doses. Based on those results...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news