Why a fourth shot is — or isn’t — necessary
At this point, one thing about the pandemic is clear: The COVID-19 vaccines, even when followed by a booster, aren’t going to stop the coronavirus — or provide long-term protection from infections.
Right after the third shot — the booster — antibodies rise up quickly. But then about a month later, they begin to decline. As a result, protection against infection drops down to about 50% three months later.
So the question is: Should you get a fourth dose to beef up protection again?
A preliminary study from Israel, published last Tuesday, suggests that for the general population, the answer is likely no. A fourth shot of the same vaccine — in this case Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna — offered very little extra protection against infection compared with only three shots.
“Not a third dose, not a fourth dose, not a fifth dose will do anything to stop infections [long term],” says Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, an infectious disease specialist at Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, Israel, and lead author of the new study.
Read more at NPR.