The COVID-19 vaccine could become an annual injection, like the flu shot, according to the head of a pharmaceutical giant and the chief science officer of the U.S. pandemic response.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said during a pre-recorded conversation hosted by CVS Heath Corporation that “The Covid virus looks more like the influenza virus than the polio virus.” The polio shot is generally a childhood inoculation, while the flu shot is administered every year.
More research is needed, Bourla said, but the “likely scenario” will be a third dose of the current shots “somewhere between six and 12 months, and from there it would be an annual re-vaccination.”
Similarly, David Kessler, working with the White House COVID response, told lawmakers Thursday at a House subcommittee hearing the U.S. should plan for COVID booster shots.
Kessler said the Biden administration is still “studying the durability of the antibody response,” following vaccinations, but “I think we should expect that we may have to boost.”
Health officials in India said they counted more than 200,000 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, an all-time daily high for the South Asian nation.
The surge in cases has India scrambling to find hospital beds and oxygen. The escalating tally has also forced India, a major vaccine producer, to delay global shipments of COVID vaccines and instead redirect them for use at home.
New Delhi health official S.K. Sarin, told the Associated Press that the case surge is “alarming.”
Some public health officials also say they believe a Hindu festival at which hundreds of worshippers bathed in the Ganges, as well as recent political rallies, may have contributed to the landmark surge.
The CDC said 48% of adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine, as have 80% of seniors, who are the most vulnerable to the harmful effects of the virus. Sixty-four percent of seniors are fully vaccinated.
The CDC also reported about 5,800 so-called breakthrough cases of people who have been vaccinated but still contracted the virus.
"All of the available vaccines have been proven effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths," the agency said in a statement. "However, [as] with other vaccines, we expect thousands of vaccine breakthrough cases will occur, even though the vaccine is working as expected."
The CDC data come amid a temporary halt in administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
An independent panel of U.S. health experts is delaying a final decision about Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine as they get more information about the vaccine and possible links to a rare but dangerous blood clot.
The CDC’s immunization advisory committee held an emergency meeting Wednesday, one day after the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration issued a joint statement recommending a pause after six women between 18 and 48 years of age developed blood clots known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis within six to 13 days after being inoculated. One of the women died, while another has been hospitalized in critical condition.
The six cases are among more than 7 million Johnson & Johnson inoculations nationwide.
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