It's Not Enough Just With A COVID-19 Vaccine, Experts Reveal The Possibility Of The Need Of Annual Flu Vaccine

Ilustrasi vaksin COVID-19. (Wikimedia Commons / Ministry of Defense of Peru)

JAKARTA - The United States is preparing the possibility to provide booster injections for people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine. The distance between vaccination and administration of this booster injection is between 9 and 12 months.

Head of Science for President Joe Biden's COVID-19 Response Task Force, David Kessler, said that immunity duration after vaccination is still being pursued, a booster vaccine may be needed.

"The current thinking is that those who are more vulnerable should accept (the booster) first", he said, as reported by Reuters on Friday, April 16.

Meanwhile, Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive, Albert Bourla said people will likely need a third booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in 12 months. And may require annual injections, CNBC reports.

Preliminary data show that the vaccine from Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) together with BioNTech SE retains most of its effectiveness for at least six months, although for how much longer has not been determined.

Even if that protection lasts considerably longer than six months, experts say the rapidly spreading and emerging mutations of the coronavirus and others that may emerge could lead to the need for routine booster shots akin to an annual flu shot.

Separately, Director of the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle Walensky revealed and the Subcommittee House hearing, the United States also tracks infections in people who have been fully vaccinated.

"Of the 77 million people vaccinated in the United States, there were 5.800 infections after vaccination, including 396 people requiring hospitalization and 74 who died", said Walensky.

He added that some of these infections occur because people who are vaccinated do not develop a strong immune response. But the worry is that in some cases reinfection is due to a more contagious mutation of the virus.

Earlier this month, Pfizer and partner BioNTech said their vaccine was about 91 percent effective at preventing COVID-19, citing recent trial data that included more than 12.000 people who were fully inoculated for at least six months.