One year or 5? Doctors and drug companies increasingly disagree about when we’ll need COVID-19 booster shots

One year or 5? Doctors and drug companies increasingly disagree about when we’ll need COVID-19 booster shots

The next vaccine race is underway “” this time for booster shots. Leading vaccine developers, including Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax, are sizing up the market for boosters “” an additional jab to boost protection for those already vaccinated against COVID-19. These drug companies have also of their shots, customized to fight some of the most concerning variants the world has seen. Meanwhile, researchers are still waiting to find out how long initial vaccine protection lasts. That's creating a contentious split in the range of predictions about when we may need more shots. Figuring out when to boost is one of the biggest lingering mysteries of the pandemic in the US, and a growing disconnect between drug companies and scientists could make it all the more complicated to find consensus. The CEOs of leading pharmaceutical companies have become forceful advocates for administering boosters sooner rather than later “” potentially as early as later this year. Theirs is essentially a "better safe than sorry" mentality, one that happens to align neatly with a chance for their companies to earn additional billions in revenue. "I think for next fall, we, as a community, should rather be two months too early boosting than two