Those who have had a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine may be wondering what the next steps are for vaccination and whether they can seek extra protection, particularly if they are at a higher risk for catastrophic results.
According to Vincent Venditto, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky’s Pharmaceutical Sciences Department, while the bivalent booster has not been around long enough to have complete data, preliminary data indicate that it provides four to six months of strong antibody responses.
Bivalent Booster
According to a recent mathematical model developed by Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Cyprus, a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines can provide adequate protection for more than a year in people who do not have certain health conditions by inducing “robustly enhanced” antibody and immune cell-based responses.
“However, the model suggested that for people with suppressed immune responses or those with cancer receiving immunosuppressive treatments, the booster effect may wane fairly quickly. These patients should therefore be given booster vaccines on a more frequent basis,” according to a press statement issued by Massachusetts General Hospital on January 9.
Venditto recommends reaching out to your healthcare physician for specific counsel if you are immunocompromised or otherwise at a higher risk of serious COVID-19 problems. Immunity timelines differ depending on certain health issues, thus individuals should seek personal health advice from their doctors.
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Future COVID-19 Vaccine
For those without specified health issues, the US Food and Drug Administration is considering switching its COVID-19 vaccine plan to yearly doses rather than inoculation numerous times a year. Individuals who are at a higher risk of problems may require more regular vaccines.
Venditto predicted this shift, and it would make sense if annual COVID-19 vaccines were bivalent, as the most recent booster was.
It is unclear when or if the FDA will execute this change, or when the annual COVID-19 doses would be made available to the public. One alternative, according to Venditto, would be to offer the yearly vaccine at the same time as the flu shot, allowing consumers to acquire both shots in a single drugstore visit.
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