According to a recent CNN.com report, the drugmaker Pfizer, who is responsible for creating the Pfizer Covid vaccine, said that they’re seeing ‘waning immunity’ from their vaccine, and that they’re ramping up efforts to develop a booster that’ll provide better protection from new Covid variants.
But the story actually comes with an interesting twist.
According to the FDA and the Centers for Disease and Control, American’s don’t need booster shots yet.
This was kind of an unexpected turn of events. Basically, here’s how it went down.
First, Pfizer issued a statement saying that they were going to (very soon) publish data about a third dose of the vaccine—which would be the booster. They also said that they were going to seek FDA ‘emergency use authorization’ for the booster in August.
Here’s a quote from a statement that was issued to CNN by Pfizer:
“As seen in real world data released from the Israel Ministry of Health, vaccine efficacy in preventing both infection and symptomatic disease has declined six months post-vaccination, although efficacy in preventing serious illnesses remains high… Additionally, during this period the Delta variant is becoming the dominant variant in Israel as well as many other countries. These findings are consistent with an ongoing analysis from the Companies’ Phase 3 study…”
They also went on to say this:
“While protection against severe disease remained high across the full six months, a decline in efficacy against symptomatic disease over time and the continued emergence of variants are expected. Based on the totality of the data they have to date, Pfizer and BioNTech believe that a third dose may be beneficial within 6 to 12 months following the second dose to maintain highest levels of protection.”
But only hours after Pfizer issued their initial statement on the boosters, the FDA and the CDC both issued a joint statement of their own.
Their statement said two notable things.
- American’s don’t need booster shots yet
- It’s not up to ‘companies alone’ to decide when boosters are needed
Here is a quote from a statement released to CNN by the World Health Organization on Friday, July 9th.
“We don’t know whether booster vaccines will be needed to maintain protection against COVID-19 until additional data is collected… limited data available on how long the protection from current doses lasts and whether an additional booster dose would be beneficial and for whom.”
Of course, the message to those of us living our daily lives ‘in the field’ remains the same.
Get vaccinated, because those who don’t get vaccinated are putting themselves and others at risk.
Will we see a booster in the coming months?
It’s possible.
But right now, apparently, the powers that be don’t see it as an immediate priority.
Of course, the real priority is to get all of the unvaccinated people vaccinated, to plug the ‘holes’ in Covid protection that still exist in the United States.
People neglecting (or choosing not) to get vaccinated seems to be a real issue that threatens to undermine progress.
And according to pretty much everyone in any position of authority on the subject, taking the initiative to go and get yourself vaccinated seems to be the number-one best way to help bring all of this ‘pandemic’ business to some semblance of a conclusion.
