Pfizer CEO says a THIRD Covid vaccine dose will be needed as soon as six months

Pfizer Inc’s CEO says he believes people will likely need a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

On Thursday, Albert Bourla said a potential booster shot would be administered six to 12 months of being fully vaccinated.

Bourla added that he thinks it is possible that people will need to be immunized against coronavirus annually.  

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech began studying a third dose of their vaccine in late February.

The booster shot is aimed at protecting against future variants, which may be better at evading antibodies from vaccine than earlier strains of the virus.

About 144 volunteers will be given the third dose, mostly those who participated in the vaccine’s early-stage U.S. testing last year.

The vaccine uses part of the pathogen’s genetic code called messenger RNA, or mRNA, to get the body to recognize the coronavirus and attack it if a person becomes infected.

In the jab, known as BNT162b2, the mRNA encodes for all of the spike protein found on the outside of the virus that it uses to enter and infect cells.

It was authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after a clinical trial involving 44,000 volunteers found the shot was 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. 

Real-world data six months later showed that the vaccine offered 91 percent protection six months later. 

However, the company’s current two-dose regimen produced a weaker immune response against the South African variant.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.