With news now coming out that a third shot, or “booster”, of the vaccine provides a better defense against the Delta Variant of COVID, Dr. Michael Osterholm talked to WCCO about that and tried to clear up what scientists and doctors have been seeing.
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Already vaccine makers are saying the data they have points to more effectiveness with a third shot. Pfizer released some of that data on Wednesday, and some countries like Israel have started providing boosters to older populations.
Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, joined the Chad Hartman Show Thursday none of this should be taken as evidence the vaccines are ineffective.
“Well, first of all it's clear they are still highly effective, whatever the conversation is here,” Osterholm tells WCCO. “And I want to make that point because I've seen people nitpick and basically come up with their sound bite out of a comment and then use that to make a point, and we don't want to do that here. They're still highly effective.”
Osterholm also talked about something called waning, and said it is not unexpected.
“One of the issues that we've known about from the very beginning and I've actually talked about this, is the concept of waning immunity,” said Osterholm who also advises the Biden Administration on COVID. “Remember now we're at six, seven, eight months out for people who have been vaccinated, and we didn't have that data. When we first started evaluating these vaccines, we had two, three, four months of data. Part of what I call corrected science, science is always looking to do better. Meaning we'll put something out there, we’ll study it, we’ll come up with answers and then put it out again and do more studying. And so we're always getting better. We're getting targeted. It's kind of like the equivalent of you don't start out and pass a senior high test when you're in kindergarten. Each year you get better. And what's happening with these vaccines, we're now learning that there may be a need for a booster.”
As a comparison, Osterholm said this is exactly what happens each year with the flu.
“I mean, think about influenza vaccines,” Dr. Osterholm said. “Every year we get a new vaccine for that. And so one of the things we're beginning to see is the potential, and I say potential. We’ve got more work to do. You get farther out, your protection may wane. Not just in terms of whether you get sick or not, but whether it prevents serious illness.
That does not mean, according to Osterholm, that the vaccine does not protect you. In fact, he says it is still preventing serious illness and deaths due to the virus. What happens now is fine-tuning.
“We're not talking about oh boy, we got to start over again,” he says. “Not even close. These are highly, highly effective vaccines that are fundamentally changing the game.”
Osterholm is still saying, very passionately, if you’re unvaccinated the virus will find you.
“If you look at this virus, this damn virus is going to do what it's going to do,” Osterholm explained. “And this surge we're seeing is not surprising given the fact that we still have some percentage of people who have not yet been vaccinated or previously infected with protection. But we see in countries that are highly vaccinated like England Israel where they're seeing major surges too.”
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