Pfizer is already testing a third dose of its vaccine for “complete protection”

While in our country the fight against the coronavirus is threatened by the shortage of vaccines, even with the officialization that millions of people will receive a single dose instead of two, the laboratories Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Thursday that they were working on the incorporation of a third dose in their vaccine against Covid-19, in particular in view of the dangerousness of the South African strain of the virus.

He was Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer who stressed at a meeting of specialists in Washington that “We are taking several steps to act decisively and be prepared in the event that a strain becomes resistant to the protection offered by the vaccine”, emphasizing in the sense that “We are working on the possible incorporation of a third dose into two of our vaccines.” It should be noted that Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines are widely applied in the United States, with numbers already reaching five million applications per day.

According to Bourla, the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine exceeds 90%, as studies of the already completed phases around the world have shown, but it is not yet known how long the protection of the two initial doses will last. Estimates on this point assume durations of 6 months to a year, but this remains an unknown which can only be revealed when the application of vaccines takes some time.

That is why Pfizer, as a way to complement this protection, and also highlighting the growing resistance that is being ruled out, will present the new Covid-19 strains in the coming years, working on a third dose that would carry the protection that should in principle be repeated every year.

We are learning more every day, “said Bourla. Pfizer and BioNTech believe their vaccine will also be very effective against the South African strain, but Pfizer chief researcher Swedish-American Mikael Dolsten explained that” the mutations virals are higher than expected. “Faced with this reality of rapid and surely regular mutations, vaccines must also adapt, and Pfizer is therefore not only working on a third dose for its vaccines, but is already studying a variant that specifically aims to overcome the South African strain , considered among the most dangerous among those known.

Moderna is also working with the South African strain in its sights, it was announced on Thursday, and has sent thousands of doses to several of the main US hospitals for testing in the coming months.