Americans May Need To Boost Up Their COVID-19 Immunity With A Fourth Dose

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“Right now, the protection that you’re getting from the third [shot], it is good enough — actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths,” CEO Albert Bourla reassured viewers during an interview on CBS’s Face The Nation. However, the Pfizer health official stressed that the three doses weren’t enough to “fight against infection,” because the protection “doesn’t last long.” Previous studies have shown that the effectiveness of the vaccine begins to wane off after six months which could leave some individuals susceptible to becoming infected with COVID-19.

Bourla noted that new variants like the “Stealth Omicron” variant, have mutated to partially evade “the immune protection” that vaccines provide, making it even more of a challenge to create a vaccine that will protect the immune system.

Pfizer hopes to create a method “that can protect for at least a year,” Bourla added during his Mar. 13 appearance on CBS. Back in January, the company announced that they were trying to develop an Omicron-specific vaccine that would help to provide greater protection against the strain.

Americans could certainly use it given the impending threat of the Omicron B.2 Variant, which has also been dubbed the “Stealth Omicron” Variant. The highly transmissible strain has currently forced millions of people in China, back into lockdown.

According to NPR, Chinese authorities reported nearly 1,337 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 across dozens of mainland cities this week. A cluster of new cases was discovered in Jilin with 895 people becoming infected with the contagious strain. The country’s tech hub, Shenzhen, reported 75 new cases as the city doubled down on mass testing. While the numbers are relatively low, this is the highest number of COVID-19 cases reported in the country since the outbreak occurred in Wuhan in 2020.