When Will You Need A Covid Booster Shot? Pfizer Monitors Breakthrough Infections As Experts Say More Data Is Needed

When Will You Need A Covid Booster Shot? Pfizer Monitors Breakthrough Infections As Experts Say More Data Is Needed

Share to Linkedin A Pfizer researcher said Monday the company is studying Covid-19 infections in fully immunized people in order to understand how long immunity lasts and determine if, and when, a booster shot is needed. Scientists are investigating how long vaccine immunity lasts. "We will be looking at real world data to help us understand when we might see a change in vaccine effectiveness," said David Swerdlow, Pfizer's clinical epidemiology lead for vaccines, at the Precision Medicine World Conference, Bloomberg Law reported. Swerdlow said examples of fully immunized people contracting Covid-19“”known as breakthrough infections“”and other immunological and clinical data would be monitored "closely" for signs indicating "when a booster might be needed." Experts and pharmaceutical companies producing vaccines all believe it is likely people will need a third booster dose to bolster flagging immunity at some point in the future, though it is not yet clear when this may be. Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group Professor Andrew Pollard, who helped develop the AstraZeneca vaccine, said Tuesday it was possible boosters would not be needed this fall, though he noted there was not enough data to decide either way. Pollard said data from clinical trials showed protection to last