As people began getting vaccinated earlier this year at a steady rate, countries began seeing their infection and death rates drop and their recovery rate increase. According to an AP article publishing in late June – about 98-99% of those who do die from the disease today are unvaccinated individuals.
"It's very clear that this is a nasty variant. It has a much greater capacity of transmitting from person to person," Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week.” Dr. Fauci is referring to the Delta variant which has becomes the dominant Covid strain in the United States and abroad. He added while the variant is especially dangerous for those unvaccinated, “…the good news is that we have a vaccine that works against it,” referring to the multiple vaccines available today.
Even so, many doctors and scientists are wondering – is a booster shot necessary to protect those who are vaccinated from serious illness and death? The Israeli government and pharmaceutical giant and maker of the Pfizer vaccine thinks so. In a study, Israel have shown that the Pfizer vaccine begins to fade after 6 months of the second shot – which warrants a periodical booster shot to protect against the various strains of the virus.
In a report conducted by Dr. Arik Haas of the Health Ministry’s Public Service division found “there is a growing correlation between those who got vaccinated early — mostly in January — and those recently infected.” Still the report concludes there was insufficient data to draw conclusions.
Wasting no time, Israel and Pfizer have teamed up to start offering booster shots to the Israeli population – especially those most at risk. But so far, Israel has been the only country who has begun giving their citizens booster shots. With only 11.9% of the world vaccinated – many countries have just begun to give their citizens one vaccination let alone three.
While Pfizer is expected to brief the United States Officials on the need for a booster shot – Dr. Fauci and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) do not seem sold on the idea that a third shot is needed. “Right now, given the data and the information we have, we do not need to give people a third shot, a boost, superimposed upon the two doses you get with the mRNA and the one-dose you get with J&J,” Dr. Fauci said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The CDC put out a similar statement reading, “"People who are fully vaccinated are protected from severe disease and death, including from the variants currently circulating in the country such as Delta," the statement said. "People who are not vaccinated remain at risk. Virtually all COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are among those who are unvaccinated."
