Pfizer is gearing up to ask U.S. regulators to authorize a third COVID-19 vaccine to boost protection against the deadly COVID-19 Delta strain.
The pharmaceutical company is requesting the booster based on evidence of a heightened risk of reinfection six months after vaccination and the rapid spread of the aggressive Delta variant.
The FDA and CDC do not see a need for a booster shot for Americans who have been fully vaccinated at this time. Several scientists have also questioned if booster shots are necessary.
Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, Mikael Dolsten, said that while the current vaccine is highly effective against the Dela strain, “they’re likely is the risk of reinfection as antibodies, as predicted.”
“It’s a small data set, but I think the trend is accurate: Six months out, given that Delta is the most contagious variant we have seen, it can cause infections and mild disease,” Dolsten added.
Vaccine expert Dr. William Schaffner with Vanderbilt University Medical Center said that even if the FDA grants Pfizer the booster shot, it would still need to be reviewed and recommended by advisers to the CDC.
“It’s not automatic by any means,” Schaffner explained.
In the meantime, Dolsten revealed that Pfizer and BioNTech are working on a new version of the COVID-19 vaccine targeting the Delta variant. He says that even with the updated vaccine in production, there is no need to replace the current version.
Experts have called the Delta variant COVID-19 “on steroids.” The new strain is responsible for 51.7% of all new infections in the U.S. over the past two weeks, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
