Pfizer has announced that it will be testing a third dose of its coronavirus vaccine to determine if it will offer better protection against variants of the virus.
“We believe that the third dose will raise the antibody response 10- to 20-fold," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in an interview with NBC News.
Pfizer will test the booster dose in people who received the vaccine more than six months ago as part of the company’s Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials.
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Vaccine performance against coronavirus mutations has been a concern since variants were first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa late last year. Research recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the Pfizer vaccine was about two-thirds less effective against the U.K. variant of the virus.
Other research in the journal found that the Moderna vaccine was less effective against the South Africa variant. Moderna is testing a new form of its vaccine to combat the new strain.
Bourla also said that getting a coronavirus vaccine will be an annual occurrence.
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"Every year, you need to go to get your flu vaccine," he said. "It's going to be the same with COVID. In a year, you will have to go and get your annual shot for COVID to be protected."
