PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are seeking authorization for a second COVID-19 vaccine booster. The shots would be for older Americans, which a University of Pennsylvania immunologist says is the right approach for now.
Currently the U.S. urges two primary shots followed months later by a booster dose for everyone age 12 and older. The goal of Pfizer and BioNTech is a thumbs-up from the FDA on this fourth shot for people 65 years and older, at least four months after they get their initial booster.
That age group has been hit hardest by the pandemic. The drugmaker cites data from Israel, suggesting older adults would benefit.
Dr. John Wherry, head of the Institute of Immunology at Penn, says that is a good option for the older population but, at this point, unnecessary for other age groups.
"Whether we need fourth doses for the entire population, I think, is still a bit far off. The data doesn't support that yet in most studies," Wherry said.
One of his concerns is that too much attention on additional boosting would diminish public perception of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
"We may not be getting as much benefit by boosting too close together, giving people a false sense of security and perhaps not getting all the bang for our buck that we might get if we space things out a little bit more,” he said.
Wherry says it's hard to say for sure that the COVID-19 booster will become an annual shot, because it's hard to predict what community transmission will look like down the road.
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With COVID-19 cases finally plummeting after the intense omicron surge, public health experts are starting to look ahead to what next steps might be needed — if a new variant crops up or, barring that, whether to try shoring up coronavirus protection in the fall at the same time people get flu vaccinations.
While authorities say the vaccinations continue to offer strong protection against severe illness, they haven't held up as well against milder infections especially those due to the omicron mutant.
Speaking to CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla signaled the company's plans.
"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," he said. "But we are just submitting those data to the FDA and then we will see what the experts also will say outside Pfizer."
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The U.S. booster campaign was based on evidence that the shots' effectiveness, particularly against milder infections, was waning about six months after the last dose. Calls for a third shot grew once it became clear the vaccines weren't as strong against the omicron mutant as they were against earlier versions of the virus.
Many scientists say the ultimate goal of vaccination is to prevent severe illness, not mild infections, and early CDC data show the shots still are doing a good job at that. During the omicron wave, effectiveness against hospitalization was 91% in people who had gotten their booster two months earlier, and 78% by the fourth month after that booster.
Pfizer based its new application on data from Israel, which already was offering a second booster to people age 60 and older and health care workers.
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While some early data left unclear just how much benefit another shot offered — or for how long — Pfizer said Tuesday that an analysis of health records of more than 1.1 million Israeli seniors showed confirmed infections were two times lower and rates of severe illness were four times lower among those who got two boosters instead of just one.
Pfizer also cited an ongoing study of healthcare workers that tracked a jump in virus-fighting antibodies after getting the additional booster.
In the U.S. so far, a fourth dose is recommended only for people with severely weakened immune systems, who need three doses to begin with for the best chance at any protection.