PFIZER boss Albert Bourla believes it is “likely” people will need a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in the future.
Currently, folks are required to take two doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 jab three weeks apart.
Does the Pfizer vaccine require a third shot?
Bourla said a potential third shot would be administered six to 12 months after someone had been fully vaccinated.
Speaking at a panel discussion hosted by CNBC in conjunction with CVS Health recorded on April 1, he added he thought it was possible people will need to be immunized against coronavirus annually.
In the segment, aired on April 14, he said: “There are vaccines that are like polio that one dose is enough … and there are vaccines like flu that you need every year.
“The Covid virus looks more like the influenza virus than the polio virus.”
Pfizer, along with its German partner BioNTech, started studying the possibility of a third dose of their vaccine in late February.
What will the third dose do?
The third vaccine is designed to protecting against future variants.
Around 144 volunteers will be given a third dose, with the volunteers coming mostly from those who participated in the vaccine’s early-stage trials in the US last year.
The Pfizer vaccine uses part of the pathogen’s genetic code called messenger RNA (mRNA) to get the body to recognize the coronavirus and attack it when a person becomes infected.
The mRNA encodes for all of the spike protein found on the outside of the virus that it uses to enter and infect cells.
Pfizer said earlier this month its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 91 percent effective at protecting against Covid and more than 95 percent effective against severe disease up to six months after the second dose.
The Biden administration’s Covid response chief science officer David Kessler said on April 15 that Americans should expect to receive booster shots to protect against coronavirus variants.
Kessler told US lawmakers the vaccines which were currently authorized were highly effective but warned new variants could “challenge” the protectiveness of the shots, according to CNBC.
He told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis: “We don’t know everything at this moment.”
“We are studying the durability of the antibody response.
“It seems strong but there is some waning of that and no doubt the variants challenge … they make these vaccines work harder.
“So I think for planning purposes, planning purposes only, I think we should expect that we may have to boost.”
