Pfizer, a US pharmaceutical company, has urged approval of a booster shot, arguing that the preventive effect of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed with Germany’s BioNTech is gradually diminishing over time. Other COVID-19 vaccine pharmaceutical companies are also in need of a booster shot. Even if not everyone is vaccinated, the elderly, people with underlying diseases, and those with weakened immunity claim that booster shots are necessary because their immunity is relatively low. A man receives a Pfizer vaccine booster shot in Tel Aviv, Israel. Provided by Yonhap News
Pfizer, a US pharmaceutical company, has urged approval of a booster shot, saying that the preventive effect of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed with Germany’s BioNTech is gradually diminishing over time.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released on its website the contents of a document submitted by Pfizer two days ago ahead of an external expert panel meeting to decide whether to approve Booster Shot on the 17th (local time). In this document, Pfizer argued that, based on its own clinical trial data so far and data from actual vaccinated people in Israel and the United States, those aged 16 and older who have been vaccinated for six months should receive the booster shot.
According to Pfizer, the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 weakens by about 6% every two months after the second dose. Pfizer also explained that breakthrough infections are more likely to occur in people who complete their vaccination earlier. In the BoosterShot clinical trial conducted on about 300 people, it was reported that the immune response was more improved than when the second dose was administered.
The FDA has yet to comment on this. However, on the 15th (local time) prior to this, the FDA announced that it is effective enough without booster shots. The FDA said that vaccines that have been officially approved or approved for emergency use against COVID-19, such as vaccines developed by Moderna in the US as well as Pfizer, and vaccines developed by Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, in the US, may worsen and die from COVID-19 infection with just two doses. was analyzed to be sufficient to prevent
Other COVID-19 vaccine pharmaceutical companies are also in need of a booster shot. Even if not everyone is vaccinated, the elderly, people with underlying diseases, and those with weakened immunity claim that booster shots are necessary because their immunity is relatively low.
Moderna announced its second quarter results on the 5th of last month (local time) and insisted that booster shots should be inoculated by the fall of this year. This is because the highly contagious delta mutation is prevalent all over the world, and the effectiveness of the vaccine diminishes over time. At the time, Moderna claimed that the effectiveness of preventing COVID-19 infection reached 93% up to six months after vaccination, but gradually decreased thereafter. After 6-8 months of inoculation with the booster shot, 14 days later, neutralizing antibodies against the wild-type COVID-19 virus and beta, gamma, and delta mutations increased 23-fold, 32-fold, 43-fold, and 42-fold, respectively, compared to before the booster shot. explained.
AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical company, is of the opinion that booster shots are not necessary for the vaccine jointly developed with Oxford University. The elderly, those with underlying diseases, and those with weakened immune systems should receive a booster shot, but not everyone thinks it is necessary. It is the position that it is effective to catch the Corona 19 epidemic by getting more people to get a single dose instead of everyone getting the third dose.
American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson announced on the 25th (local time) the need for additional vaccinations by releasing the clinical trial results of a booster shot of a vaccine made by its affiliate, Janssen, on the 25th (local time). The claim is that if the second dose (booster shot) is administered six months after the completion of the Janssen vaccine, the level of neutralizing antibodies will be 9 times higher than that of the first. However, according to data released by Johnson & Johnson on the same day, as a result of follow-up of 17 of the Janssen vaccine recipients last year, antibody levels hardly changed even after six months of vaccination.
Experts believe that, unlike other infectious diseases such as measles, the preventive effect of COVID-19 does not last for a lifetime once the vaccine is completed, and lasts about 5 to 7 months. Countries that started vaccination early, such as Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, are already in the process of taking a booster shot or are in the process of preparing for a booster shot, fearing that their immunity will decrease.
In Korea, the booster shot is planned to target high-risk groups, such as the elderly and those with underlying diseases, who have been vaccinated for six months since October.
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