[News] COVID-19: Pfizer will study cases of infected vaccinees to see if booster doses are necessary

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In the case of the US, more than 10,200 cases of infections have been reported in vaccinated people.

The pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced on Tuesday that it will carry out a study on a group of people who, after being vaccinated, contracted the COVID-19 virus, to determine if a booster injection is necessary and, if so, when to give it.

This was announced by David Swerdlow, an expert in clinical epidemiology at this company, during the World Conference on Precision Medicine that is being held virtually these days in the city of San Francisco.

"We will look at real-world data to help us understand when we might see a change in the effectiveness of the vaccine," Swerdlow said, the Bloomberg agency reported Monday.

The expert added that they will monitor this situation "closely" and use "immunological data, clinical data and real world data" to determine when a booster vaccination might be necessary.

"We will look at real-world data to help us understand when we might see a change in the effectiveness of the vaccine," Swerdlow said, the Bloomberg agency reported Monday.

The expert added that they will monitor this situation "closely" and use "immunological data, clinical data and real world data" to determine when a booster vaccination might be necessary.

As of April 30, more than 10,200 cases of infections have been reported in vaccinated people in the United States.

About 44% of the nation's po[CENSORED]tion has been fully inoculated, with some 311 million doses administered so far, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Booster, or follow-up injections are for patients who have received the full dose of their initial vaccine (one or two doses, depending on the brand) and whose immune system may need an extra boost along the way to combat variants or boost the decrease in antibodies, says the expert.

In this situation, “we are working to understand the impact of booster doses. We will get data from ongoing follow-up of our clinical trials to see how long immune markers last, ”Swerdlow said.

There are still "unanswered questions," said Julie Louise Gerberding, executive vice president of Merck & Co. and former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Even with the amazing and wonderful efficacy of the vaccines that are currently licensed, we do not know the durability of long-term protection," she stressed.

A real-world study called HERO-Together, led by the Duke University Clinical Research Institute, is designed to address the health outcomes and long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccines, but is limited to those health workers. Pfizer indicated that its researchers could expand beyond that po[CENSORED]tion, Bloomberg says.

"There are many scientific advances that need to be monitored and evaluated as we move forward, we are certainly not out of the woods" with COVID, Gerberding added.