As more people in the Bay Area receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, some are looking ahead to the future and how the vaccine might factor in.
"We know the virus will mutate, that's what viruses do," said Dr. Celine Gounder, infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist who served on the Biden transition COVID-19 advisory board, on Monday's Ask an Expert.
"We can overcome whatever immune evasion that has come up thus far with just additional doses of the current vaccine," she said.
And Gounder and her colleagues consider "booster" a misleading term. "There is a real misperception that we're looking at needing yearly booster shots like we do for the flu," said Gounder. "That's not what we're looking for COVID-19."
Like other vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and polio, usually three to four shots are necessary and then patients are done.
"We're looking at a three-dose regimen for people at some point down the line," she said.
It's likely that most people will just need another dose of the current vaccine available, despite companies looking into adjusting the vaccine to combat the new variants emerging, said Gounder.
But the number of shots ultimately doesn't really matter. Those who've received a third shot recently are still susceptible to breakthrough infections, she said.
The best solution to reducing virus spread is administering doses to any people still unvaccinated.
Folks who are severely immunocompromised, those undergoing cancer treatment, who have AIDS, or have received organ transplants, are the best candidates for a third shot right now, said Gounder.
