One major pharmaceutical company encourages people to get a second booster shot against COVID-19 to ensure protection amid the surging number of cases. However, medical experts say that it is not necessary at this point.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said she still believes that people are "going to need boosters" in the fall of 2022 and beyond, as per Fox News.
During a health care conference organized by Golden Sachs on Thursday, she announced that government health officials are studying whether more booster shots are needed.
Bancel's statement followed a recent study of Israel that showed a fourth COVID-19 booster shot had increased antibodies five times after one week of the shot's administration.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that the preliminary results of the research show a "very high" possibility that a second booster will provide increased protection from omicron, which has become the dominant COVID-19 variant in the United States and many countries.
Bancel also announced that Moderna had started developing a vaccine specializing in the highly contagious omicron variant. However, the target date of the availability of the vaccine is not yet determined.
"We are discussing with public health leaders around the world to decide what we think is the best strategy for the potential booster for the fall of 2022. We believe it will contain omicron," CEO Stephane Bancel announced on Monday.
Meanwhile, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla's company vaccine against the omicron variant will be ready in March as NBC Chicago.
Focus More On Vaccine Access
However, some medical experts argue that repeating the same vaccine could harm the body's immune system more than good.
The chief of the University of California/San Francisco Infectious Disease associate division, Dr. Monica Gandhi, cautioned that repeating the same vaccine "trains your immune system wrong" as the practice does not recognize the antibodies " the "old ancestral strain" which composes the vaccines.
She added that immunologists are expressing concern about the method they call "original antigenic sin."
"If we boost, let's boost with a better vaccine, not the one against the original strain of the virus that emerged," she said.
Some skeptics like Andrew Pollard, chairman of Britain's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, argued that leaders should focus on increasing the availability of the vaccines to the unvaccinated and vulnerable dose instead of pushing vaccinated people to take more booster shots.
One Booster Shot Is Good Enough
The UK Health Security Agency said that there is no need for a fourth shot as booster jabs provide high levels of protection on adults against severe conditions from the omicron variant.
The agency reported that around three months after receiving a third vaccine dose, people aged 65 and above had 90% protection against hospitalization.
Wei Shen Lim, chair for COVID-19 immunization on the government's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said in a statement that the current data indicates the efficacy of booster doses even for the age groups that have high risk, as per Reuters.
"For this reason, the committee has concluded there is no immediate need to introduce a second booster dose, though this will continue to be reviewed," Lim said.
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