BUFFALO (WBEN) - The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, publicly stated that people will likely need another dose of the vaccine within one year of getting full vaccinated.
However, Dr. Tom Russo, who serves as the Chief of Infectious Disease at the Jacobs School of Medicine joined WBEN Friday morning and questioned that statement because the data doesn't support it.
"We don't really know...if we're going to need a booster, and if we're going to need a booster, when?" said Russo.
Russo explained that there are two instances in which a booster shot is needed. The first is if the vaccine simply loses its effectiveness over time and that once high level of immunity starts to wane - for example, tetanus. People are supposed to get a tetanus booster every decade or so because the level of protection has a propensity to decrease.
The second reason a vaccine may need additional boosters is if the strain evolves and becomes resistant to the original vaccine, and an example of this is influenza.
But because the data isn't complete and nobody really know if/when a booster is needed, Russo said the statement could lead to even more confusion and vaccine hesitancy.
"The statement came a little bit out of right field, and if you listen very carefully to his words, and trust me, I did, he sort of acknowledged all of those things - 'We don't know how long it's going to last; we don't know if variants are going to escape this,' and then he dropped the bomb, 'you might need a shot in the fall,'" said Russo. "It really didn't make any sense to me at all."
Russo even suggested there may be underlying motives to why and when Bourla said what he did.
"I'll let you guys speculate why a CEO of a major corporation wanted to speculate that you need more of my product."
