Third dose likely needed after receiving two Pfizer vaccine shots: MOH official

Oman Friday 16/April/2021 15:54 PM
By: Times News Service
Third dose likely needed after receiving two Pfizer vaccine shots: MOH official

Muscat: People after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine will probably need a third booster dose 12 months later, an official from the Ministry of Health said. 

An official from the Omani Ministry of Health spoke exclusively to Times of Oman, "A person receiving two doses of Pfizer vaccine may need a third dose 12 months after the date of the second dose, according to the studies and researches as stated by Pfizer.”

He added, “The COVID-19 vaccine is similar to the rest of the vaccines, such as the influenza vaccine, where a person needs to receive the flu vaccine every 12 months.”

This came according to the statement of Pfizer CEO, Albert Bourla, said while speaking on a CVS-hosted panel on the vaccination effort that people will likely need a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated.

“It is possible people will need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus annually,” he added.

Bourla continued, “A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose somewhere between six and 12 months, and then from there, there will be an annual revaccination but all of that needs to be confirmed.”

He explained that there are vaccines like polio, that one dose is enough and there are vaccines like flu that you need every year. The COVID-19 virus looks more like the influenza virus than the polio virus."