Will there be a Pfizer booster shot? Here’s what you need to know

Yesterday, Pfizer expressed concerns that the immunity power of their vaccine may be waning sooner than expected.

As the more contagious Delta strain continues to affect counties in the U.S., the pharmaceutical company is seeking emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a booster shot to be ready by August.

Will everyone vaccinated need a booster shot?

As of the time of this writing, the FDA and the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) repudiated the claim that Americans require a booster shot—from Pfizer or any other company.

“Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time,” the CDC said in a statement.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says they want to collect more research before issuing an official decree on the need for booster shots, writing. As they put it: “Limited data is available on how long the protection from current doses lasts and whether an additional booster dose would be beneficial and for whom.”

Their ultimate decision will be especially relevant for the 80 million people who received the Pfizer vaccine.

Pfizer’s vaccine additionally accounts for two-thirds of doses administered across the European Union and it is the only vaccine available in Israel.

The Pfizer vaccine may not prevent infection after 6 months

According to data submitted by researchers from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, their two-dose vaccine can reliably prevent death and hospitalizations as a result of COVID-19, but the same may not be true for both infection and symptomatic manifestations of the disease after six months.

This is why Pfizer is pushing for a booster shot between six and 12 months.

U.S officials disagree about what to do at this stage. The FDA, CDC, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have claimed that the available data suggests all of the vaccines currently available offer adequate protection for the coronavirus variants circulating.

The research literature identifies unvaccinated populations as the most at risk by a sizeable margin. Reinfection is possible after vaccination (thanks to a combination of factors including age, stress, and weight), but these rarely lead to fatal outcomes.

Mixing doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines may produce a stronger immune response than taking two doses from just AstraZeneca, a new study from the University of Oxford determined.

Countries like Spain and Germany have already reported positive results after administering either Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines as a second dose to people who have already received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

In the case of COVID-19, early research suggests that mixing Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine doses may not result in more antibodies than the standard two-shot Pfizer regimen, but it may produce a stronger immune response overall.

The order in which one received these doses produced different results: Taking the AstraZeneca vaccine before Pfizer’s induced a higher antibody count than the reverse order. The same was true with T-cell response. Patients demonstrated complete protection more quickly after mixing doses regardless of the order.

Still, most health experts are confident that if you are fully vaccinated the odds of experiencing severe manifestations of COVID-19 are extremely low.

“People who are fully vaccinated are protected from severe disease and death, including from the variants currently circulating in the country such as Delta,” the CDC and FDA said in a joint statement.

They went on to say they are prepared for booster doses if and when the science demonstrates that they are needed.