Pfizer CEO Says Third COVID Vaccine Dose Likely Needed Within 12 Months

CNBC reports that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said people will "likely" need a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated. He also raised the possibility that people will need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus yearly, "but all of that needs to be confirmed. And again, the variants will play a key role." Earlier this month Pfizer said its COVID vaccine was more than 91 percent effective at protecting against the coronavirus and more than 95 percent effective against severe disease up to six months after the second shot. That data was based on more than 12,000 vaccinated participants, but researchers say more data is required to determine whether protection persists after six months. David Kessler, the Biden administration's COVID response chief science officer, said earlier that Americans should expect to receive boosters to protect against coronavirus variants, which could "challenge" the effectiveness of the doses. Pfizer and BioNTech said in February they were testing a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants.