A Fourth Shot Against Omicron? Don’t Count It Out
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says we’ll likely need another shot sooner rather than later. But what kind?
Get ready for more.
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg“No one should be in any doubt: There is a tidal wave of omicron coming, and I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough,” Boris Johnson said in a statement Sunday night. The Prime Minister’s warning tallies with modeling by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine predicts between around 25,000 and 75,000 deaths from the new variant this winter in Britain. On Sunday, Johnson announced a plan to super-charge the country’s booster program so that everyone over 18 will be offered a third shot before the end of the year.
Given the current pace of roll-out, that will take some doing. But the question many have been asking — apart from whether another Christmas will be ruined by Covid — is how potent booster shots will be against the new variant.