Bill Gates may warn that a third shot is needed to fight new variants

A third dose of coronavirus vaccine may be necessary to prevent severe cases of new variants of the disease, Bill Gates said Tuesday. The billionaire philanthropist’s comments come amid the growing concern that current vaccines are less effective against the South African and Brazilian variants.

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Bill Gates in Brussels to promote health and clean energy initiatives

“The discussion now is that we just need to get a very high coverage of the current vaccine, or do we need a third dose that is exactly the same, or do we need a customized vaccine?” Gates told anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell to CBS Evening News.

“All five companies that have American vaccines are looking at the change and adding it so that people who have already had two shots might get a third shot,” he said. “I think it’s pretty likely that we’ll have an imported vaccine just to make absolutely sure that these variants hit the US that they do not escape the protection of the vaccine.”

Gates funds studies in South Africa to determine whether the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax vaccines were just as effective against the more contagious variant.

“AstraZeneca in particular has a challenge with the variant. And the other two, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax, are slightly less effective, but still effective enough so that we can take it out absolutely as quickly as possible while studying this idea of ​​alignment. vaccine, ”Gates said.

If the coronavirus is not eradicated, it may need additional shots in the future. “Probably not annually, but as long as it’s there, we want as many Americans as possible not to spread it among themselves,” he said.

Dr Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, tell CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on February 7 that it believes the vaccines currently being distributed in the US will provide ‘reasonable protection’ against the new variant, even if it is less effective against the new strains. Nevertheless, he may also need to apply shots in the fall.

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