Pfizer CEO Says “Third Vaccine Booster Shot Needed within Six Months Possibly”

By Grand Rapids Anonymous
Thursday, April 15, 2021 at 4:46:00 P.M. EDT

GRA: Why not every month?
(ZH)

As American [sic] waits for the CDC to finish a review of blood-clotting risks associated with Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourlas has warned reporters that recipients of the Pfizer vaccine - the most widely distributed jab in the US - will “likely” need to receive a third “booster” shot within 12 months of being vaccinated, and possibly as early as six months after receiving their second dose.

The news is hardly a surprise. Comments and rumors about the need for booster shots have been reported by the US media since late last year. But on Thursday, Bourlas said a booster shout [sic] would likely be necessary, and that patients may need to be vaccinated against COVID annually, similar to the way that flu vaccines are developed and distributed.

Biden Administration: Vaccine Rollout Not Impacted

“It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus,” he told cnbc’s Bertha Coombs during an event with CVS Health. Bourlas added that vaccines will need to be used to combat not just COVID, but the evolving mutant strains - or “variants” - like B.1.1.7, known as the “Kent” strain, which has been blamed for some of the botched rollout in the US.

Bourlas isn't the only major public health official warning about the need for booster shots. On Thursday, the Biden administration’s Covid response chief science officer David Kessler said Americans should expect to receive booster shots to protect against coronavirus variants. He noted that while the current crop of COVID jabs is highly effective, they could be “challenged” by the new variants.

New data released earlier this month by Pfizer said that updated data from its clinical trial showed its vaccine to be highly effective six months after the second dose. The data was based on more than 12K vaccinated participants. More data is still needed to determine whether protections last after six months, however. Pfizer and German partner BioNTech began studying a third dose of their vaccine in late February.

--GRA