COVID booster shots
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Started by metmike - Aug. 7, 2021, 10:38 p.m.

It's crystal  clear that the COVID vaccinations are not forever and may wane in effectiveness similar to flu vaccinations.

Flu vaccinations are mostly 50-60% effective. The COVID vaccine is much more effective than that, at least for the first 6 months or so.

Flu vaccines lose effectiveness fast enough so that the protection has plunged far enough that its always been recommended to get another shot a year after the previous one.

Each year, the strain in the shot may be a bit different. 


With COVID, we have the Delta strain that these current shots still provide good protection for but maybe not so much for the Lambda strain. 

That's one reason to lessen the amount of COVID  by getting as many people vaccinated now because the current strains we can provide some protection from are likely to mutate into new strains.........which could be totally resistant to the current vaccine.

Here is how they have always decided on what strain to protect us against with the flu vaccinations.

Selecting Viruses for the Seasonal Influenza Vaccine

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/vaccine-selection.htm


UAB Medicine News

Flu Strains Explained, and How the Vaccine Works    

https://www.uabmedicine.org/-/flu-strains-explained-and-how-the-vaccine-works

Comments
By metmike - Aug. 7, 2021, 10:39 p.m.
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Lambda Variant Could Be Vaccine Resistant, Study Finds

https://www.verywellhealth.com/lambda-vaccine-resistance-5195973

By metmike - Aug. 7, 2021, 10:47 p.m.
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COVID vaccine boosters: the most important questions

Concerns over waning immunity and SARS-CoV-2 variants have convinced some countries to deploy extra vaccine doses — but it’s not clear to scientists whether most people need them.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02158-6

To boost or not to boost? That is the question facing countries fortunate enough to have vaccinated much of their adult population. In the face of soaring infection numbers caused by the highly contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, and hints that immunity triggered by COVID-19 vaccines might fade over time, some countries are considering whether to give further doses to those who have been fully vaccinated. Germany and Israel have announced plans for booster-shot programmes, and a growing list of countries including the United Arab Emirates, China and Russia have already started administering extra doses.

But scientists say that the case for COVID-19 vaccine boosters at this point is weak. They might not be necessary for most people, and could divert much-needed doses away from others. On 4 August, the World Health Organization called for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September. “Wasting resources on boosters for those who are already protected against severe disease does not really make too much sense,” says Laith Jamal Abu-Raddad, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine—Qatar in Doha. “Down the line, probably, we would need to think of it. But really, we don’t have strong arguments for it right now.”


By metmike - Aug. 7, 2021, 10:50 p.m.
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    FDA Covid-19 Vaccine Booster Plan Could Be Ready Within Weeks  

     

Extra shots are being weighed as a way to extend protection against the coronavirus as worrisome variants spread

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-covid-19-vaccine-booster-plan-could-be-ready-within-weeks-11628194767