Researchers are working on questions of immunity and how to deal with viral variants.
By Erin Garcia de Jesús June 11, 2021 @ SicenceNews
Roughly six months ago, on December 11, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the first COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the United States. What followed was a push to get that shot, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, to those at high risk (SN: 12/1/20). Moderna’s jab wasn’t far behind, securing emergency use authorization just a week after Pfizer’s (SN: 12/17/20; SN: 12/11/20). And then in February 2021, there were three COVID-19 vaccines when the FDA authorized Johnson & Johnson’s shot (SN: 2/27/21).
Now, around 40 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Just over half of residents have gotten at least one dose. Meanwhile, U.S. cases of COVID-19 and deaths have plunged to their lowest levels since March 2020.
Amid the ongoing effort to vaccinate people, two big questions loom: Will immune protection against the coronavirus be long-lived? Or will people soon need booster shots?