Moderna plans to have third vaccine booster shot ready by fall

[left-of-center2012]

COVID-19 vaccine maker Moderna will make a third booster shot for its two-dose vaccine available to Americans by the fall, CEO Stéphane Bancel said this week.

Moderna's vaccine is more than 90% effective against the coronavirus six months after the second shot, studies show. What remains unclear is how long immunity from the virus lasts. The same is true of Pfizer's two-dose COVID-19 vaccine.

"There will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months. And then from there, there will be an annual revaccination. But all of that needs to be confirmed," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Thursday at a virtual event hosted by CVS Health.

A third booster shot against the virus is not yet required, but health experts say it could provide additional immunity against COVID-19 variants that are beginning to spread to the U.S. from Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-booster-shots-moderna/

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. I hope they make

Enough so it does not have to be rationed. And no appointments and competition to get the shot .

I hope you can walk into any pharmacy and get the booster ,like you do with the flu shot.

[ananda]

22. Agree!

This round was crazy and ugly for me.. just to find
a shot.

[womanofthehills]

2. They need to start on the forth vaccine or figure how to

Add in the new double mutation varant now going wild in India and already in San Francisco.

[DFW]

3. My wife and I just got our first Moderna doses a week ago

Second round in 3 weeks. If we have to fly 5000 miles back to Dallas for a third round, we will.

[left-of-center2012]

5. Why would you have to fly back to Dallas for your third shot?

[LisaL]

6. He is based in Europe and they are very slow to vaccinate.

NT

[DFW]

7. Because where we live, we stand no chance of getting vaccinated

So, we have two choices—fly back to the USA, or get nothing.

[Tracer]

13. You could shorten your flight by going to New Hampshire.

They will now vaccinate anyone who wants a shot -- even if you don't live there.

Apparently, they have more supply than demand.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. IIRC

he has a grand baby imminent so I think that was part of the impetus to where and when!

[DFW]

24. There are no direct flights from Germany to New Hampshire

We do have nonstops to Dallas, so the travel time is actually shorter, even if the distance is longer.

[left-of-center2012]

14. One good idea might be ...

One good idea might be for U.S. embassies to give shots to U.S. citizens abroad.

[LisaL]

17. That sounds like a good idea.

Just read about German tourists going to Russia to get Sputnik V.
Not sure why Europe is doing such a poor job at vaccinating people.

[DFW]

21. The Russian and Chinese vaccines don't have verifiable results.

Of course, their governments say they are wonderful, but this has been confirmed so far mostly by them. Germans going to Russia is a desperation move because the chances of getting any vaccination at all soon are slim.

Europe is caught up in its inefficient bureaucracy. They are more interested in making rules than helping their citizens. In New Jersey, my sister is older than her husband, and they wanted to get vaccinated together. They checked around, and found a clinic in Newark that would take them if there were no-shows on any given day. The drove there, waited an hour, and got their first shots that same day, plus their appointment for the next one. In Germany, it was declared illegal--not just discouraged, but actually forbidden--to do that. Excess vaccine was to be thrown away rather than administered. Someone made a rule, and rules are to be followed.

THAT's why.

[DFW]

20. Nice idea

But there are 9 million of us Americans abroad, and that doesn't even include non-citizen dependents. The State Department would be overwhelmed if they had to set that up. In addition, some countries' capital cities are hundreds (or, in some cases, thousands) of miles from other parts of the same countries.

[left-of-center2012]

23. So those 9 million Americans abroad need rely to their local governments

I'm OK with that.

[DFW]

26. It's not OK with us.

We are subject to the inefficiencies of the governments of France, Germany (in our case), Kenya, Bulgaria, Indonesia, or wherever it is we are. About the only countries where a legally resident foreigner can get a vaccination without an insane wait are Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. My colleague in Switzerland has been vaccinated, but he is a native Swiss, and is 74. An American residing in the USA telling an American who resides, for whatever reason, in a country like Romania that he or she "needs to rely on their local government" will come across to that person as "I've got mine, who cares if you got yours?"

Maybe it's OK with you that 9 million of us are subjected to the wait, sometimes open-ended, but to those of us that are affected, we prefer, if we have the option, to get the vaccination as soon as we can. Many, if not most, of us don't have the option of being able to hop back to North America any time we feel like it. I do, and I made use of it. Under current rules, my wife was allowed to accompany me because she is the legal spouse of a U.S. citizen. We didn't come here just to get vaccinated. Our US-based daughter was about to have her first child (just did 2 days ago). We used to the occasion to arrange vaccinations while we are here. I'm an exception, not the rule.

[left-of-center2012]

27. Okie dokie smokie

[CottonBear]

11. DFW lives in Germany. NT

[dsc]

28. The EU really messed this up badly

I don't know just how they can fix this, but fix this they must. I am glad you are able to get here to get the vax.

[DFW]

30. Thanks! So were we.

I spent an hour on the phone with a sympathetic (rare enough!) worker at the Gesundheitsamt (Health Ministry) who told me flat out that Germany was caught flatfooted when the vaccines became available, and hadn't set up the infrastructure to get supplies or the distribution. They started their priority list much as we did--elderly, care-givers, educators, etc. But it went so slowly that they had a hard time figuring out the who and the when. The guy I had on the phone asked my age, and said that as a legal resident, I would be on some list with my wife, who is with three months of my age, and we would be "notified." He guessed late August or early September, but it was just a guess.

My job still requires me to travel plenty (two weeks ago, I was in Spain), and since the EU is a hotbed of infection even now, the news from the ministry was less than encouraging. Indeed, about ten days ago, the newspapers proudly proclaimed that the age limit for vaccinations in our state, Nordrhein-Westfalen, had dropped all the way down to 79! No longer was it limited to people 80 years of age or older. That same week, Texas said that people 17 and older were being accepted for vaccination. Since we were coming to the USA anyway, it really didn't matter if we came a few days early, or to where. So, when my office in Dallas said they could get us appointments four days in advance, I booked flights to there right away. To get from Dallas up here to New York was just a 3 hour flight. In the course of my work, it usually takes me between two and five hours each way, each day. A one way 3 hour nonstop flight plus a taxi ride to my destination was like a luxury quickie by comparison.

You're right, fix this, they must. But the "Beamtenstaat," or bureaucrat state, that is Germany is not set up to reward efficiency. My wife is a retired social worker, and knows the system inside and out. The way to get ahead as a government worker in Germany is to not make any wrong decisions. The way to be sure that you make no wrong decisions is to make no decisions at all. So they pass any decisions on up the ladder until they finally land at the desk of someone who is either confident and competent, or has nothing to fear from a higher-up.

[dsc]

31. I got my Moderna shot 1 on 27 Feb

and Moderna 2 on 27 March. Both at a medical practice I could have walked to if I had to. The Feb appointment was 4 days after teachers became eligible here. Honestly, my situation is such that I have very small class sizes and likely could have waited but once it opened I went for it. My county has had some vaccine resistance and we had the shots. I didn't keep anyone from getting a shot who wanted it. I also didn't have firm numbers on class size in Feb. I know that I am lucky and am grateful for that. My state took this seriously, my school did for the most part too. My district set up a way to get teachers, (I used a different way but theirs still helped).

[LisaL]

4. This is all going to be very interesting.

Should people be only getting boosters from the same company that made their original vaccine?

[DFW]

8. That occurred to me, too

But I suspect that consistency/compatibility is probably better than mixing things up.

[womanofthehills]

25. Pfizer is working on a booster too, but what about the variants

coming after the African variant ?- like the new India double mutation variant.

[pinkstarburst]

9. So what do people who got the J&J

shot the first time around, but want to switch over to Pfizer or Moderna in the fall do? Do they just get the booster or do they need to get the two-dose regimen?

[LisaL]

10. This is just a guess, but I would think a single booster would work.

Available data shows that people who were infected with covid only need one shot of either Moderna or Pfizer to get a good response.
Since a person vaccinated with J&J would still have antibodies against covid, one shot of Moderna or Pfizer would presumably work well for them.
But again, this is just a guess, and who knows what authorities are going to recommend.

[dalton99a]

12. FWIW Vaccine mixing is allowed in Europe

(it is allowed in the U.S. by the CDC "in exceptional situations in which the vaccine product given for the first dose cannot be determined or is no longer available" )

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/france-advises-vaccine-mixing-amid-clotting-fears-76971560

France advises vaccine mixing for some, amid clotting fears
French health officials say people under 55 who received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine should get other vaccines for their second shot because of an extremely rare risk of a blood clotting disorder
By The Associated Press
April 9, 2021, 8:37 AM

PARIS -- French health officials said Friday that people under 55 who received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine should get other vaccines for their second shot because of an extremely rare risk of a blood clotting disorder.

Germany is expected to recommend a similar booster dose strategy for people under age 60. The World Health Organization says it's too early to know whether to recommend such vaccine mixing, however, and the European Medicines Agency hasn't advised putting any age restrictions on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

French authorities said the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company's vaccine remains central to its vaccination plan strategy, and they urged older populations to keep taking it as France's hospitals battle another surge in COVID-19 patients.

“It’s an effective vaccine,” Dominique Le Guludec, president of France’s High Authority for Health, told reporters. “If we want to win the battle against the virus, we must use all weapons at our disposition.”

[womanofthehills]

16. They are doing studies now on combining vaccines

Guess they were thinking of that

[DFW]

32. It makes sense to be aware of compatibility or lack thereof

Supplies of all vaccines will likely not always be available in quantity in all places at all times. It would be better that mixing them be an approved option than a risk taken out of necessity.

[Johonny]

18. By the fall will they let us take either still or only the one you got this spring...

Who knows...

[area51]

19. If it turns out we need a booster shot, plus a yearly shot

who will pay for it? If the govt. won't, I fear vaccine prices will spike up a lot, and many people won't be able to afford it.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

29. Great, keep me protected, I'm fully vaccinated with Moderna, an annual booster is good if needed