No, we don't have evidence for boosters at this point (STAT News)
Here, in response to J&J (from article):
One key question in the United States has centered on whether people who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot should get a booster of one of the mRNA vaccines, those made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Some lab experiments have indicated the antibody levels from the one J&J shot are sufficient to stand up against Delta, though another study that garnered headlines this week suggested those antibodies weren’t all that protective against Delta. Perhaps, one hypothesis went, two doses of J&J or a combo of J&J and another shot would be needed to build up protection levels to guard against Delta — akin to how studies have shown that just one shot of some of the other vaccines is not all that effective against the variant.
But the conflicting results highlight the limitations of what can be extrapolated from these lab studies (for one, they just look at one of several components of immune protection). There will certainly be more research into this question, such as whether Delta is breaking through J&J shots more frequently than other vaccines or is more likely to cause breakthrough disease in those people. But federal officials reiterated Thursday that right now, they do not recommend that people who got the J&J shot get an mRNA booster.
and more importantly, do we know at a population level that the Delta variant is causing more disease:
(all 3 points excerpted from the article)
1. We’ve never really had a good estimate for how frequently breakthrough infections occur.
2. [we hear about them because] they make news — someone contracting the coronavirus even though they’re vaccinated makes for an easy headline.....
3. It’s also possible that breakthrough infections are happening more frequently for reasons that have nothing to do with how well vaccines are working. For one, many of us have returned to activities we had put off. Having more, unmasked contact with others — at bars, weddings, family gatherings, whatever — increases the risk that we’ll come into contact with an infectious person. (It’s no surprise that the place with the highest rate of new cases in Massachusetts is summer tourism hot spot Cape Cod.) Plus, as cases increase, there’s just more virus around, so we’re more likely to be exposed.
There’s a statistical reason that could also be playing a role. The higher the percentage of a community that’s vaccinated, generally the lower the absolute number of cases will be — which is what everyone is aiming for. But as a greater proportion of that community becomes vaccinated, breakthrough infections will actually account for a greater share of overall cases. Think about a scenario where 100% of people are vaccinated — 100% of cases would be among the vaccinated.
https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/23/burning-questions-delta-next-phase-covid-19-pandemic/
And from me - it's important to keep the focus on the real science of the pandemic. We might need boosters (I got the J and J, so I am watching the data with some personal interest). But all these anecdotal stories are not science. They are interesting, and might add to our questions about what is happening. But real science has to be done in the labs and anecdotes need to be translated to population and laboratory studies.
= new reply since forum marked as read
