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Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, speaking during an Axios event, said that the data he has reviewed supports the notion "that likely there will be a need for a booster somewhere between eight and 12 months" after the initial vaccination regime.
That means those who were among the first to get a vaccine shot in mid to late December 2020 or early January 2021 would likely need a booster shot as early as September 2021, depending on the definitive month-long time frame.
The new time frame is more specific than earlier comments by Bourla, who said in April that patients will “likely” need an additional dose of the vaccine within 12 months of becoming fully vaccinated with the two required doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
"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," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Axios at the same event.
But more time and more data are needed before a definitive answer on the possible need for booster shots comes.
"The bottom line is, we don't know if or when we will need booster shots," Fauci said in a separate interview with NBC News. "But it would be foolish not to prepare for the eventuality that we might need it."
A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of health workers shows mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) to be 94 percent effective.
“This report provided the most compelling information to date that COVID-19 vaccines were performing as expected in the real world,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. “This study, added to the many studies that preceded it, was pivotal to CDC changing its recommendations for those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.”
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