BOSTON (WHDH) - Long lines wrapped around Tufts Medical Center in Boston on Monday as people looked to get their booster shots amid concerns over the omicron variant.
Dan Messina was one of the people standing in line ready to get his third shot to protect himself against the coronavirus.
“I’ve got my two shots and I’m going to get the booster because of this new variant that’s coming out,” he said.
Ron Thibodeau also decided to head to the hospital Monday to get his booster shot.
“I had an appointment for a week or two from now and I just figured, especially with the news, why don’t I go now?” he said.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging everyone to get a booster, there is still a lot unknown with the new variant, including whether the current vaccinations are effective against it. That is something that researchers in Massachusetts and across the globe are racing to find out.
“We are currently generating the omicron spike sequence and then we will be able to test whether the Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J vaccines, either the initial vaccines or boosted vaccines, still have activity against this virus,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, vaccine researcher at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center. “We hope to have data in the next several weeks.”
Meanwhile, vaccine makers are working on a new vaccine just in case.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that “Around 60 days on the development, we will have clinical production of the vaccine so that we can go and test it to humans. And then within 95 days, we will have the full results of this trial.”
Dr. Shira Doron, infectious disease specialist at Tufts Medical Center, is advising people not to wait for a potential new vaccine.
“When you boost, you get such high immune response, such high antibody levels, higher than you got from the first two actually, and they can overcome even a somewhat immune-evading variant,” she said.
Pfizer is expected to ask the FDA to approve boosters for those 16 and 17 years old.
Currently, a person needs to be 18 years or older to get any of the three major booster shots.
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