RELATED: It’ll Be “At Least” This Long Before You Need Another COVID Shot, Doctor Says. During an Axios live event on May 19, there were multiple questions about the future of vaccination. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla offered his take on when you’ll need an additional dose of the vaccine to bolster immunity. “The data that I see coming, they are supporting the notion that likely there will be a need for a booster somewhere between eight and 12 months,” he said. As Bourla pointed out, this means that people who received the earliest rounds of the vaccine could need a booster shot as soon as September or October. The CEO also said that the company is working on “a new version” of the Pfizer vaccine that will help make it easier to distribute and administer. The updated shot “will be a ready-to-use vaccine, so you don’t need to reconstitute it, you don’t need to dilute it,” Bourla said. This vaccine could be stored for up to six months in normal refrigeration, which mitigates the number of vaccines that go to waste due to improper storage.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel also weighed in on the booster vaccine discussion. In an email to Axios, he wrote, “I think as a country we should rather be two months too early than two months too late with outbreaks in several places.” For people with the highest risk of severe disease—such as the elderly population and healthcare workers—who were vaccinated in December and January, Bancel would recommend that boosters begin in September. RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. White House COVID adviser Anthony Fauci, MD, also believes the necessity for booster shots is fast approaching. “I think we will almost certainly require a booster sometime within a year or so after getting the primary [shot] because the durability of protection against coronaviruses is generally not lifelong,” he told Axios. But while many experts agree the need for additional doses is imminent, others are not so sure. Cornell professor and virologist John Moore, PhD, pointed out to Axios that there’s not yet any proof that we will need boosters. “As of now, we don’t have any evidence that protective immunity has dropped to a troubling point, and certainly not for people immunized in December, January, February,” he said. “It’s hard to say where we will be in November because right now it’s May.” Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines still boast high efficacy rates through six months, the longest duration they’ve been tested for so far. On April 1, Pfizer shared a study that found its vaccine is still 91 percent effective six months after vaccination. And an April 6 study published in The New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the Moderna vaccine is 94 percent effective after six months. Experts will continue to monitor the need for boosters, and efficacy over time will ultimately decide when it’s time for booster shots. RELATED: Dr. Fauci Says These 2 Things Determine If You Need a COVID Booster.
