While a large number of the world population is yet to get vaccinated against deadly Coronavirus disease, the head of the Pfizer has said there may be need for third dose of the vaccines.
Albert Bourla who spoke at an interview aired on Thursday, April 15, stated that the world population may likely need a third dose of his company’s COVID-19 vaccine within a year of being fully vaccinated.
Naija News understands that a publication in the last month by Pfizer had claimed that a jab of the company’s remedy is 91 percent more effective at protecting against the dreaded disease and more than 95 percent effective against severe cases of Covid-19 up to six months after the second dose.
However, researchers have declared that more data is needed to prove whether the protection could lasts after six months.
“We need to see what would be the sequence, and for how often we need to do that, that remains to be seen,” said Bourla during the interview with the CNBC in early April.
He added: “A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months and then from there, there will be an annual revaccination, but all of that needs to be confirmed,” he said, adding that variants will play a “key role.”
“It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus,” he said.
Meanwhile, the head of US President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response team, David Kessler, has warned a Congressional committee that Americans should expect to receive booster shots to defend against coronavirus variants.
He said: “We don’t know everything at this moment,” he told the House Coronavirus Crisis Subcommittee. “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,”
He added: “I think for planning purposes, planning purposes only, I think we should expect that we may have to boost.”