A child getting a COVID-19 vaccine dose.Photo: Getty
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has announced that a fourth dose of theCOVIDvaccine may be necessary to fight infection.
Bourla has submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) explaining the need for a fourth dose, he said Sunday during an interview with CBS’sFace the Nation. “Right now, the way that we have seen, it is necessary, a fourth booster right now,” he said.
“The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths. It’s not that good against infections,” Bourla added.
The announcement comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a study last month thatsupports the need for a fourth dose, finding that the mRNA shot’s protection begins to decline after about four months.
“There may be the need for yet again another boost — in this case, a fourth-dose boost for an individual receiving the mRNA — that could be based on age, as well as underlying conditions,“Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told reporters at the time.
Fauci clarified that recommendations for a fourth dose will likely not be made “across the board for everyone,” adding: “It very likely will take into account what subset of people have a diminished, or not, protection against the important parameters such as hospitalization.”
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In Sunday’s interview, Bourla also detailed efforts for a new vaccine “that will protect against all variants, including Omicron, but also something that can protect for at least a year.”
“Omicron was the first one that was able to evade in a skillful way, the immune protection that we’re giving. But also, we know that the duration of the protection doesn’t last very long,” Bourla said.
Last week, the World Health Organizationconfirmed a new variant, dubbed Deltacron — a combination of Delta and Omicron — has been detected in the France, Denmark and the Netherlands. Researchers have identified 17 confirmed instances of Deltacron in both Europe and the United States, but more cases would need to emerge for them to effectively detect the severity of the variant.
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source: people.com
