[앵커]
Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the President of the United States, said the vaccine booster shots, or booster doses, were given first to people with compromised immunity and the elderly.
In Israel, where the world’s first booster dose is being administered, more than a third of people have already completed the booster dose.
Reporter Won-bae Kim reports.
[기자]
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC that hesitant to vaccinate against COVID-19 could create mutated viruses that are not responsive to the vaccine.
[앤서니 파우치 / 미국 국립알레르기·전염병 연구소장 : 바이러스에게 계속 변화할 기회를 준다면 더 나쁜 변이가 생길 수 있다는 취약점을 갖게 될 것입니다.]
It will affect those who have been vaccinated as well as those who have not.
This is because mutations can evade vaccine protection.
Fauci said he expects the Pfizer vaccine to be fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of this month.
He said he thinks the FDA’s official approval could lead to compulsory vaccine measures in universities and businesses.
Fauci said the booster shots, or booster doses, would most likely be given to the elderly and immunocompromised people first, and will do so as soon as data is available.
People with compromised immune systems are less likely to have a strong immune response, suggesting that vaccine protection has weakened somewhat over time, he said.
“There is no doubt that vaccine protection weakens over time for older people,” he said.
Meanwhile, in Israel, which started the world’s first booster vaccination last month, more than 420,000 people have completed the vaccination.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said more than 420,000 booster doses were “more than a third of the target for all vaccinations.”
This is YTN Kim Won-bae.
YTN Wonbae Kim (sj1029@ytn.co.kr)
[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
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