Covid Immunity May Last Years; Health Agencies Will Decide On Boosters

ABC News: US Health Agencies Will Decide If COVID-19 Booster Shots Are Needed – Not Vaccine Companies
With coronavirus variants popping up across the globe, new questions are beginning to arise about how long the immunity from the vaccines will last, and whether booster shots will be needed to maintain protection against the mutating virus. Although vaccine companies are already in the process of conducting clinical trials for booster shots, and preparing for potential widespread distribution, a decision pertaining to if and when the updated shots will be needed in the months and years to come will ultimately be made by a team of independent scientists and U.S. government officials .But in this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, there is still very little known about COVID-19, and when a booster shot might be needed. (Mitropoulos, Ramanathan and Salzman, 5/26)

The New York Times: Immunity To The Coronavirus May Persist For Years, Scientists Find
Immunity to the coronavirus lasts at least a year, possibly a lifetime, improving over time especially after vaccination, according to two new studies. The findings may help put to rest lingering fears that protection against the virus will be short-lived. Together, the studies suggest that most people who have recovered from Covid-19 and who were later immunized will not need boosters. Vaccinated people who were never infected most likely will need the shots, however, as will a minority who were infected but did not produce a robust immune response. (Mandavilli, 5/26)

Chicago Tribune: Will We Need A COVID Booster Shot? It’s An Open Question.
Dr. Richard Novak, professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Department of Medicine, is already getting questions from the participants of the university’s vaccine clinical trial about whether they will need a booster shot. Those participants were among the first people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and some are anxious that, if immunity wanes, they will also be first to confront that possibility. ... It’s a question on the mind of many people who are now fully vaccinated: Will they need a booster shot to stay that way? (Buckley, 5/27)

U.S. News & World Report: Fauci: Coronavirus Vaccine Booster Shots Likely Necessary
Leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said that he believes recipients of the coronavirus vaccine will need a booster shot, but he declined to say when. "I don't anticipate that the durability of the vaccine protection is going to be infinite," Fauci told a Senate subcommittee. "It's just not. So I would imagine we will need, at some time, a booster." He said the interval of protection from the vaccines is unknown but that it lasts at least six months and likely a year. (Smith-Schoenwalder, 5/26)

ABC News: Long-Term Care Advocates, Worried About Vulnerable Residents, Say Plans For COVID-19 Booster Shots Must Start Now
Five months after the first COVID-19 vaccine doses made their way to the nation's nursing homes, long-term care advocates are sounding the alarm about the need for a plan for a potential booster shot, out of concern that elderly long-term care residents will be the first to see the effects of the coronavirus vaccine wear off. Although vaccine companies have already begun clinical trials for booster shots, there is still not enough research to know if or when people will need them, experts tell ABC News. (Romero, 5/27)

In vaccine development news —

AP: Production Of Another COVID-19 Vaccine To Begin In Weeks
Production of another potential vaccine against COVID-19 will begin within weeks, its developers Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said Thursday as they launched a large trial enrolling 35,000 adult volunteers in the United States, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The study will test vaccine candidate formulas against the original coronavirus that spread from Wuhan, China, and against the variant first seen in South Africa, the pharmaceutical firms said. If the trial is successful, regulators could approve the vaccine for use in the last three months of the year, the drugmakers said in a statement. (5/27)

Reuters: Sinopharm's Two COVID-19 Shots Effective, Study Says
Two COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinopharm showed more than 70% efficacy against symptomatic cases, but it remains unclear how much protection they provide against severe or asymptomatic cases, according to the first detailed result of a large late-stage study published to the public. A vaccine developed by a Wuhan-based subsidiary of Sinopharm was 72.8% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 at least two weeks after second injection, based on interim results, the peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed on Wednesday. (5/27)