More than 63 million people have been vaccinated globally against the deadly virus of 2019. It’s an exhilarating stride toward closing the pandemic after more than a year of lockdowns and mask-wearing.
But while clinical experimentation has shown that virus vaccines are absolutely safe and highly effective at preventing severe forms of infections, there are still a lot of speculations that experts are in the process of testing. Probably the one question that’s been rattling everyone, is how long will the vaccine protection last.
Moreover, is there a need for follow-up doses to amplify immunity and obviate new, more deadly contagious variants of the virus?
In this post we will try to answer the above-mentioned queries while also sharing expert advice.
How long will immunity last after getting vaccinated?
On April 1, 2021, Pfizer declared that its injection offers up to six months of protection against the pandemic-causing virus. Particularly, data from its 3rd trial mentioned that the vaccine was 91.3% successful at preventing the infection for up to six months post the second dose.
Moderna’s vaccine provides similar shielding as per a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers have mentioned that the antibody activity remains at its peak through six months post the second dose in all age groups.
At this point, six months is the time frame for which experts have assured information, as stated by Professor William Schaffner, Infectious Disease Specialist at Vanderbilt University. But this doesn’t mean that vaccines will start wearing off after six months. It’s definite that Pfizer and Moderna injections will provide immunity for a prolonged period.
So is there a need for immunity booster vaccines?
As of now, both vaccine providers (Pfizer and Moderna) are examining whether an immunity booster dose may be helpful in supporting protection after the initial vaccination, specifically when it comes to evolving virus variants.
Doctors say that it’s too early to decide whether or not people need a booster injection, but there are good chances that people will require follow-up shots, since there’s a rare but definite chance of having a breakthrough infection. This condition occurs when someone gets infected, despite being fully immunized.
Researchers claim that at some point the larger section of the population would require immunity-boosting injections as the virus will likely be with us for a long time.
Considering that so far we have already come across multiple different variants and mutations of the virus, it is quite evident that we would require boosting of the immune system at some point.
