The CEO of Pfizer says a booster shot would likely be needed within a year of being fully vaccination against COVID-19, and a Biden administration official told lawmakers Thursday that they’re getting ready for that possibility.
In an online conversation with the head of CVS Health and a CNBC reporter that was released yesterday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said, "It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus."
Bourla said vaccines are the power tools in the arsenal against extremely virulent variants, and he said it’s possible that people will need to be vaccinated annually against the virus, not unlike annual flu vaccines.
“Somewhere between six and 12 months, and then from there there will be an annual revaccination," he said. "But all of that needs to be confirmed."
There have been ongoing discussions about adding another shot or yearly vaccinations to the regimen. It's not just Pfizer. Officials with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have brought that possibility up as well.
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And Dr. David Kessler, the chief science officer with the White House's COVID-19 response team, testifying before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Response on Thursday, said they’re preparing to secure the shots if that’s what’s necessary.
"For planning purposes, only because there’s no decision, I think we should expect that we may have to boost," he said.
Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine is about 95% effective in preventing symptomatic disease in clinical trials, and earlier this month the companies reported that the vaccine is more than 91% effective against disease with any symptoms for six months.
Moderna’s vaccine was 94% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in trials, and 90% effective in real-life use. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was 66% overall globally in trials, and 72% effective at preventing disease in the US.
But because the virus is mutating, and there isn’t enough data yet, researchers aren’t sure, overall, how long the protection lasts.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that of the nearly 77 million people in America (23%) who’ve been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, several thousand have become infected anyway.
“Vaccine breakthrough infections were reported among all people of all ages eligible for vaccination. However, a little over 40% of the infections were in people 60 or more years of age,” the CDC said.
"We don't know everything at this moment," Kessler told the House committee.
"We are studying the durability of the antibody response. It seems strong but there is some waning of that and no doubt the variants challenge ... they make these vaccines work harder. So I think for planning purposes, planning purposes only, I think we should expect that we may have to boost."
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