Most people won’t need COVID-19 vaccine booster for years, immunization experts predict

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting next week to discuss whether immunocompromised Americans should be allowed a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and Pfizer said last week it would seek regulatory approval for a possible third booster shot of its vaccine amid the rapidly spreading Delta variant. Israel announced this week that it would start giving a third dose of Pfizer to severely immunocompromised adults, and Britain announced a plan to give boosters from September.

The rapid spread of the Delta mutation among unvaccinated pockets in the United States combined with Pfizer’s announcement “triggered third dose panic among those vaccinated”, Politics reports. But global public health officials are outraged that vaccine-rich countries are considering a third injection before health workers in many countries receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. And most public health and US government officials say people won’t need a booster now or anytime soon.

“There is no evidence at this time that the general population needs a booster dose because we do not see any evidence of waning immunity or significantly reduced efficacy against the Delta variant,” William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, recounts Politics. “I think for most people, outside of these special populations, the immunocompromised and maybe the elderly – I think most people’s immunity is going to last for years, to be honest.” He said if a variant was successful in escaping the vaccines, a booster might be needed, but he assumed it would take three or four years, or even more, before most people needed an extra dose. .

“I haven’t seen any evidence that a booster would be indicated for anyone, including the immunocompromised,” said Helen Boucher, infectious disease physician at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. The Washington Post. She said the best way to protect people who are immunocompromised is to make sure everyone around them is vaccinated.

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