then, to get a third dose to boost that immunity for at least a period of time in protection, not just against omicron but to a certain extent against delta, because you re not going to be protected as well against mild illness over time. that s the advantage of the booster. remember, if that s the strategy, if the strategy is boosting to keep your neutralizing antibodies up, even with a third dose, that will fade over time. i think it s a solution for the winter months, but we may find it next summer that neutralizing antibodies is better. delta was a highly contagious virus, as contagious as chicken pox which is a highly contagious virus. omicron is a worry. and we re hearing the rate of omicron s spread is now doubling every couple of days, according to the cdc director. so we ll keep watching. dr. paul offitt, thank you for taking your time and expertise. really appreciate you. president biden is in
here. you have to remember that when we started, we gave people vaccines, and just a few weeks apart, three weeks and four weeks apart, because we needed to get the neutralizing antibodies up, and have as much immunity, because we were facing a tsunami of cases and deaths, but many of the vaccines require another vaccine spread six months apart, or six months later. so this is no good deed going unpunished, so we needed the people vaccinated quickly and provide immunity, the but overtime, we are likely to see the decrease in immunity to this virus. we are starting to see the data from israel, and we are also seeing the breakthrough cases everywhere here, but the question is really not just about or about if we are going to be needing a booster, but it is about when. we do know that right now people who are immune-compromised, they should be getting a booster, and people who are over 60, and people with underlying
starting to see the need for a way to be able to keep these antibodies up, to be able to really get a boost of neutralizing antibodies. and this third dose is very likely going to provide longer-term immunity. we don t know for sure because this is still all, you know, ongoing. we re still learning about it. but that s very likely. that s what we see, for example, with the hepatitis vaccine. and so it s very likely that this is just a third dose to be able to boost your immune system. in terms of efficacy, these vaccines are all doing an excellent job of reducing severe disease, hospitalization, and death. we have to remember, you look at those numbers. who is being hospitalized? who is dying? the vast majority of those people are unvaccinated. it is very, very rare for somebody who is vaccinated to have one of these very severe outcomes. so the vaccines are really holding up well.