The first batch of the third dose of COVID-19 vaccine shots — you know, those “booster shots” — will likely be available in September, according to Axios.
When will third COVID-19 shots come out?
Both CEOs from Moderna and Pfizer — the two developers of the common COVID-19 vaccines — told Axios that recent data suggests the “booster” shots will be available (and needed) by the fall.
- “The data that I see coming, they are supporting the notion that likely there will be a need for a booster somewhere between eight and 12 months,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said, according to Axios.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser on COVID-19, told Axios that the third shot will likely be necessary.
- “I think we will almost certainly require a booster sometime within a year or so after getting the primary (shot) because the durability of protection against coronaviruses is generally not lifelong,” Fauci said, according to Axios.
Who gets the third COVID shot first?
Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, Mikael Dolsten, told CNBC in May that the third shot will be given out to those in need first.
- Dolsten predicts “those with chronic diseases that make them more vulnerable to severe illness and hospitalization, such as cardiovascular disease or asthma” will get the third booster shot first, CNBC reports.
Per CBS News, U.S. officials have started figuring out how to roll out the third vaccine shot to those who already got two shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
It’s unclear if those who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would need another booster shot.