It was additionally backed by President Joe Biden’s administration. However, the panel has authorized a booster shot of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine to folks aged 65 and above.
“I believe it’s going to turn out that the proper regimen, at least for an mRNA vaccine such as Pfizer’s, is the two original doses, the prime, followed in three to four weeks by a boost, followed several months later by a third shot,” Fauci, Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was quoted as saying by the Telegraph.
“I’m favourably disposed to boosts based on the waning of immunity, as we’re seeing very, very clearly in the data in the US and even more dramatic data from our Israeli colleagues.
“There is a few indication of waning within the UK, which is the rationale the UK has or will quickly be vaccinating folks 50 years of age and older, in addition to healthcare suppliers and those that are immunocompromised,” he noted.
The Pfizer study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that about 12 days after the booster dose, the rate of infection was eleven-fold lower and of severe disease nearly twenty-fold lower in those who received a booster compared with those who had received only two doses.
Similarly, Moderna has also claimed that protection from its mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 can last only for about six months, pitching a strong case for booster shots.
While many countries like Israel, the UAE, Russia, France, Germany and Italy have already proceeded with the booster doses, several scientists, including the World Health Organization, have called against the third Covid shot.
In a recent review published in The Lancet, an international group of scientists argued that vaccine efficacy against severe Covid is so high, even for the delta variant, that booster doses for the general population are “not applicable” at this stage within the pandemic.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot wrote within the Telegraph {that a} third dose of vaccines in opposition to Covid-19 might not be wanted for everybody.
Source: IANS
