Pfizer vaccine: “We need a third dose”, …

“We need a third dose to bring the protection back to almost 100%, ”announced one of the vaccine developers BioNTech / Pfizer against covid-19 during a virtual press conference.

This third dose should be administered around nine months after the second, given that “at six months the protection is no longer 95 percent but 91”, and at eight months “the antibodies which produce the protection decrease markedly”, he explained. Ugur Sahin, co-founder of the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech. Then “every year or maybe every 18 months” a new dose will be needed.

On the other hand, Sahin also said he was “confident” that his lab’s vaccine is effective against the variant of the coronavirus found in India. This strain “presents mutations that we have already studied and against which our vaccine works“, He assured. “Our approach is based on our cancer experiences. We have experimented with many variations and so far have had good results in all of them,” he added.

Sahin explained that the protection provided by the vaccine “slowly decreases over time ”, as observed in follow-up studies, therefore a third dose is necessary. The “booster vaccination” should be given “at 9 months, or at the latest after one year” and “probably every year or perhaps every 18 months thereafter” a reapplication will be necessary, as is. the case with the seasonal flu vaccine.

Two weeks ago, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla suggested the possibility that a third dose of the vaccine would be needed to provide protection.

Interior protection

In England, where the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines are applied, the national health authority Public Health England (PHE) said that a single dose almost halves the transmission of coronavirus in the home environment. According to the study, people infected three weeks after receiving the first dose were between 38 and 4% less likely to infect others around them.

“Vaccines are vital for returning to normal life. Not only do they reduce the severity of the disease and prevent hundreds of deaths every day, but we are now seeing that they also have the effect of reducing the possibility of transmitting COVID-19 to other people, ”said Mary Ramsay , from the PHE vaccination zone.

The investigation also established that protection against the coronavirus was obtained 14 days after vaccination, in the entire vaccinated age group.