- Dr Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that a COVID-19 booster shot may be needed for the future.
- Pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and Moderna, said a third survey may be needed.
- According to Fauci, public health officials and not pharmaceutical companies will decide.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday that the decision on whether a COVID-19 vaccine increase shot is needed will be taken by public health officials and not by pharmaceutical companies.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, said on Sunday that people were wary of allegations by Pfizer and Moderna that a shot of their COVID-19 vaccines could be assured that the decision did not belong to them.
“It’s going to be a public health decision,” Fauci told Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd. “This is not going to be a decision made by a pharmaceutical company. We are partners with them because they deliver it. It will be an FDA / CDC decision. The CDC will use their advisory committee and immunization practices as they always do.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said earlier in April that people are likely to need boost shots within a year of being fully vaccinated. Corinne M. Le Goff, chief trading officer of Moderna, said during a conversation with investors last week that the shift to the application of booster shots could begin next year.
Results of the clinical trials of Pfizer and Moderna indicated that the vaccine is effective for up to six months, but it is not yet known how long the vaccines will be effective before another vaccination is required.
Boosters can also be administered to target certain variants of COVID-19, such as the B.1.351 strain first identified in South Africa, as Insider reported earlier.
Fauci said the CDC will use its advisory committee and the same vaccination practices they always do, which involve officials examining the vaccine’s durability over time by measuring the level of antibodies that still exist after a period of time.
—With the Press (@MeetThePress) 18 April 2021
If the level of antibodies starts to drop to a certain point, Fauci said that public health experts can project when a booster shot is needed to prevent “breakthrough infections” of COVID-19.
“You may see more breakthrough infections that exceed the effectiveness of the vaccine, and then you may also decide to do so,” he said. “But it will be a decision based on health, not on a pharmaceutical company.”
Fauci said Sunday he expects the federal government will be ready to make a decision on whether and when an amplifier will be needed by the end of summer or early fall this year.