Author: Jess Arnold
As a new variant makes its way across the United States, many are wondering if everyone will need a fourth COVID vaccine dose to protect themselves.
WUSA9 took those questions to President Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Infectious Disease Specialist with the Mayo Clinic, Dr. John O’Horo, and Executive Director of Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center, Dr. William Moss.
Question: Will everyone need to get a fourth COVID vaccine shot soon?
Dr. Fauci: “Moderna and Pfizer and others have applied to the FDA for an emergency use authorization for the use of a fourth booster dose. We won’t know what the results of that examination of the data are off for a few weeks at least, so it would not be a good idea to try and predict or anticipate what they’re going to say. If in fact, there is the determination, it likely will be for a particular subgroup of people. I don’t think we’re going to see a recommendation for everybody I’m talking about in the immediate future.”
He added that there is “no doubt” that those who are immunocompromised should get a fourth dose at some point.
Dr. William Moss: “In terms of thinking about the fourth dose, I think about it as who, what, and when. And so, you know, right now, I don’t think we have evidence to support a fourth dose for everyone, particularly younger, healthy adults, you know, who are at low lower risk of severe disease…So I think where we may see FDA recommendations for a fourth dose are going to be in individuals who have underlying medical conditions that place them at higher risk, particularly those who are immunocompromised, where their vaccine responses are going to be poor.”
Moss added that the type of recommended vaccine dose could be different the next time.
“Maybe we’d be better off with a protein-based vaccine, or maybe we’d be better off with a nasal spray vaccine,” he said. “Now, these aren’t available yet. So we’re not going to see that in the near future. But down the line, we may be seeing this kind of mixing and matching, if you will–have different types of vaccines for those booster doses. And those may end up giving better protection.”
The timeline of when a fourth dose could be available is still unknown. Read more at WUSA9.
