Dr. Fauci warns Americans may face having booster shots INDEFINITELY and says fully-vaccinated 'breakthrough' infections could still cause l
Fauci said 'there are a lot of factors' that go into making decisions such as whether people will routinely have to get vaccinated against COVID-19
He said researchers have already started conducting studies giving boosters to people who have already been full vaccinated
Those studies have shown hopeful promise that future booster shots beyond a third jab may not be needed
But Fauci said it was too early to say whether people would have to have the shots regularly, as many do with the annual flu jab
Fauci said 'the only way' the public health officials will become certain whether continued booster shots will be needed will be by conducting further studies
Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday that he can't rule out people having to have COVID-19 booster shots indefinitely as the virus continues to surge.
Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the president, made his comments in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN in which he also warned that fully vaccinated people with so-called breakthrough infections can still get long-term COVID.
'We know a lot more than we did to start, but there's obviously, you know, we need to be humble in the face of this virus,' Fauci said.
Fauci said 'there are a lot of factors' that go into making decisions such as whether people will routinely have to get vaccinated against COVID-19 like an annual flu shot.
He said researchers have already started conducting studies giving boosters to people who have already been full vaccinated, which have shown hopeful promise that future booster shots beyond a third jab may not be needed.
'The good news about that is that the acceleration of the response goes way up. I mean even better than what you get with the two doses together. In other words, it goes up and up and then if you give a boost, it goes way up,' he said.
'I don't know for certain, but that could mean that you induce a response that's high enough - and durable enough - that you may not have to worry about what people are concerned about, needing a so-called boost every year or so.'
He continued: 'I would hope that the degree of elevation of response that we will see with the boost might actually give us a lot of wiggle room of not necessarily needing a boost often.'
'But I have to be, as you say, we are humble and we are modest about it. We don't know the answer to that.'
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