Washington: The efficacy of various vaccines to fight against the dreaded coronavirus is a hot topic of discussion these days. Opinions and rumours are flying thick and fast regarding the strength of various coronavirus vaccines and how long will it be effective in preventing the disease. Amid this debate Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has said people will likely need a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus -19 vaccine within 12 months of getting fully inoculated.
Bourla told ‘CNBC News’ Thursday that it is possible people will need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus annually. “We need to see what would be the sequence, and for how often we need to do that. We need to see how effective the duration of the vaccine against the virus,” he was quoted as saying by CNBC.
“A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months. From there, there will be an annual re-vaccination, but all of that needs to be confirmed. And again, the variants will play a key role,” informed Bourla.
Also read: Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine protects younger teens
Pfizer said earlier this month that its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 91 per cent effective at protecting against the coronavirus. The company also said the vaccine is more than 95 per cent effective against severe disease up to six months after the second dose.
The data was based on more than 12,000 vaccinated participants. Researchers are still working on how long protection against the virus lasts once individuals have been fully vaccinated. However, they are yet to come up with a complete time frame.
