SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Pfizer has said that their new bivalent COVID-19 vaccine gives people "substantially higher" protection than the original vaccines, after questions about just how much the new booster impacts immunity.
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This comes as the weather gets colder and a winter surge is on the horizon. New cases are cropping up in some parts of the United States already.
Although it makes sense that the new iteration of the vaccine will be more effective, it’s unclear just how much that really is, despite the statement from Pfizer.
"It leaves out the clinical effect there," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" with Melissa Culross and Eric Thomas on Friday.
"What they did is study the blood of individuals who were vaccinated," he said. "To look at the antibody levels."
"What we want to know – is that higher level of antibody, does it translate into more protection against infection – that's the key part that’s still missing," said Adalja.
More data is always helpful, but it's still not enough to really determine how much more effective the new boosters are compared to the old ones.
That more concrete data will become available in the coming months, as people are getting the new vaccine now and the effects will be easier to track afterwards.
Despite the data that is available though, some people are still reluctant to get the new vaccine.
"We've really not had very good messaging about boosters," said Adalja. "Where they're beneficial, who benefits from them, who gets marginal benefit from them, who gets a big benefit from them."
The boosters really should have been targeted to high risk individuals.
"When you look who's dying every day," he said. "Typically they are high-risk individuals who have not been boosted."
Going forward, as the virus continues to evolve, it's unclear how much the new booster will continue to be able to protect against the new variants.
"What we know is that these lineages of BA.4 and BA.5 have more mutations that are meant to get around the immunity you get from BA.4 and BA.5," he said.
Regardless, the bottom line is about protecting people from severe disease that could lead to hospitalization or death, not about protecting from infection.
"These variants are going to come and go," said Adalja. "Forever."
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