Will the Covid-19 vaccine become a routine injection?

The Covid-19 vaccine is likely to become a routine shot. (Illustration)

Dr. Archana Chatterjee, dean of the Chicago School of Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University (USA), said: “To keep the Covid-19 epidemic from getting out of control, people need to be vaccinated periodically, even if it is every day. every year, or every 2 years or every 5 years. Experts will make appropriate recommendations when enough data is collected.”

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to hold a meeting on April 6 to discuss a future booster shot of a Covid-19 vaccine, which will discuss Discuss in detail the interval between booster injections.

The meeting will involve representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), aiming to work towards establishing a “common framework” in how to respond. with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biological Evaluation and Research on March 21, said that the prevention of Covid-19 by vaccination is still the optimal choice, especially when Covid-19 is present. may gradually be treated as an endemic disease.

Sharing this view, Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said that the Covid-19 vaccine could become an annual shot, at least for the foreseeable future, until science really understands the disease. this and whether this corona virus strain will gradually become like the 4 strains of corona virus that cause the common cold.

According to Mr. Gottlieb, the Covid-19 vaccine should be given every 6 months if it is to be most effective.

Corona virus was first discovered in the 1960s, of which there are 4 circulating strains that cause the common cold.

Other strains of coronavirus that infect humans are MERS, which causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, and SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.

Dr Abraar Karan, an infectious disease expert at Stanford University, said that the fact that the virus is constantly evolving and that vaccine-acquired antibodies will decline over time means that waves of epidemics can become difficult. measure.

In that context, additional vaccinations are inevitable.

Many experts also said that the future Covid-19 vaccine may have a completely different formula than current vaccines.

Several companies like Pfizer and Moderna are developing vaccines that are effective against any variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with the goal of a vaccine lasting at least a year.

Meanwhile, Moderna and biotech company Novavax are working on a combination vaccine that can prevent both flu and Covid-19.

Dr Chatterjee said that creating a combination vaccine could make sense in many ways, for example helping to reduce the number of injections, or the burden of transporting, storing and preserving vaccines.

However, a combination vaccine can be problematic, as the components may not work together and the immune response may not be as effective as it should be.

In addition, expert Chatterjee said, the safety factor also needs to be considered, when the combination vaccine can cause more side effects.

Another factor to consider when implementing vaccination is whether people are participating in the vaccination enough.

Currently, about 65% of people in the US have received the full dose of basic Covid-19 vaccine, but only 29% of people get booster shots.

Meanwhile, only 50% of the American adult population is vaccinated against influenza, the rate is not really as expected.