Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, recently urged Americans to still get both doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines and not just one.
Fauci said both doses — which are required to receive full vaccination — can help stop the infection from COVID-19 variants, CNBC reports.
- “You’re in a tenuous zone if you don’t have the full impact” of both doses, he said.
Fauci said the first dose does offer protection. But it’s unclear how long that protection lasts. But both doses will give you the best shot at combating coronavirus in the future, according to CNBC.
“When you look at the level of protection after one dose, you can say it’s 80%, but it is somewhat of a tenuous 80%,” Fauci said. “When you leave it at one dose, the question is how long does it last?”
Moderna, Pfizer protective after one shot
A recent study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are about 90% effective in stopping COVID-19 infection in the real world. Moreover, the study found one dose of those two-shot vaccines are 80% effective in stopping the virus.
- “This is very reassuring news,” said the CDC’s Mark Thompson, the study’s lead author, according to The Associated Press. “We have a vaccine that’s working very well.”
The study found 42% of the positive COVID-19 cases in the study were from people who tested positive after they got COVID-19 symptoms, as I explained for the Deseret News. However, about 10.7% of the patients had no symptoms. There were no deaths reported in that study.