Booster Shots? Are they necessary for COVID?

At the moment a lot of countries have high vaccination rates, but there are questions being asked about whether the third doses -known as BOOSTER SHOTS may be necessary, but of course as with much to do with COVID the evidence is still emerging. 

What are BOOSTER SHOTS?

Well, the vaccines we have all do a pretty good job of introducing our bodies to certain diseases and convincing our  immune systems to take that threat seriously. But for some diseases, it takes extra convincing. Which is why you might need to get the same shot more than once -weeks or even years later.

Vaccines teach our immune systems to recognize  certain pathogens, or disease-causing agents. In a nutshell, they trigger the formation  of specialized cells and antibodies that recognize the distinctive proteins that  stick out of pathogens -called antigens. If something with one of those antigens shows  its face, the antibodies latch on and disable it,  while those specialized cells  help to kick it to the curb.

Now, there are a few vaccines that  require multiple doses of the same shot. And there are almost as many reasons  for that as there are different vaccines. Because how much immunity you get from a single  shot, and how long it lasts, can really vary.

Are Booster shots necessary for COVID?

The short answer is, IT'S UNCLEAR.! 

We do know, and this is very early evidence, that antibody levels tend to fall in the weeks and months following a second shot. And this is obviously complicated by the highly infectious Delta variant. But what's important to remember is that antibody levels aren't the only part of our immune system that help give us protection. So we have other, sort of, immune system soldiers like B-cells and T-cells, that all together help provide that protection. 

At the moment, scientists don't quite know what level of antibodies, what level of B-cells and T-cells are necessary to give us that protection that we're looking for. So just because the antibody levels may be falling, that does not mean that our bodies won't remember how to deal with this enemy if we come across it in the weeks and months following the second shot. 

In the UK, for instance, we do have data that suggests that antibody levels are falling in fully vaccinated people in the weeks and months after their second dose. 

However, it does not appear to have directly translated into higher hospitalizations and deaths in in that category of people. Of course the argument for people who are you know compromised or are classed test clinically vulnerable is far stronger, and that's because after getting two shots, they don't get the optimum level of protection as the rest of us do, and so it does make sense to top up that already, sort of, lower level of protection that this category of people may have gotten post their first two shots. 

Overall, though, whether we’ll need booster shots down the line depends on a few things, like how much our immunity declines.  

Does a booster shot need to be the same as my vaccine?

No, not necessarily, and that's pretty much what scientists are trying to figure out. 

The general prevailing hypothesis is that given the different vaccines teach the immune system to recognize the enemy in this case the virus in different ways, if you provide different doses of the different vaccines, that might potentially lead to a more diverse, broader sort of immunity. 

But much like everything else, the science is still ongoing, and we don't really have a  good answer for this yet. 

On the safety side, there are worries, and early evidence from the UK suggests that mixing and matching the jabs does tend to increase the rate of side effects, and so that is something that policy makers will have to contend with. 

In short, we’re going to need a lot more  information before we know exactly how often we’re going to need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and how much those vaccines will need to change.

The good news is, scientists are on the  case. Immunology is complicated, But we’re getting better against COVID-19.

STAY SAFE AND FOLLOW PRECAUTION.