Will we need a COVID vaccine booster shot? UW study looks to find out

UW Medicine will join 11 other sites across the nation in the coming months in testing out the viability of a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.

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The need for most fully vaccinated Americans to get a booster shot is one that medical experts have yet to agree on. While Pfizer revealed last week that its vaccine saw “a decline in efficacy over time,” and that a booster shot taken six months after initial vaccination could be “beneficial,” the jury’s still out on how necessary that might be.

“This isn’t something we say, ‘no, we don’t need a boost right now, the story has ended forever.’ There’s a lot of work going on to examine this in real time to see if we might need a boost,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN over the weekend. “Right now, given the data that the CDC and the FDA has, they don’t feel that we have to tell people right now you need to be boosted.”

King County Health Officer Dr. Jeff Duchin echoed that sentiment last week as well, noting on Twitter that while a booster “may be recommended at some point, data does not support the need currently.” Duchin went on to suggest that an additional “priming dose” — which he described as “not a true booster” — could also be needed for those who are immunocompromised.

CoV-19 vax booster doses may be recommended at some point, but data does not support the need currently. A third priming dose (not true booster) may be needed for certain immunocompromised people – under active discussion but no recommendation yet.https://t.co/lcNojHUsaY pic.twitter.com/N9LL1msWxt

— Jeffrey Duchin, MD (@DocJeffD) July 9, 2021

In the meantime, UW Medicine will be conducting a trial to determine the viability of a booster shot down the line.

“We just want to be ready for whatever this virus throws at us,” principal investigator Dr. Christine Johnson said in a news release. “… I think we still need a lot more data to understand when to get boosters, how to get them, how to phase them, the timing. And so that is exactly what this trial is trying to address.”

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The trial will be split into two groups. The first will be comprised of people who have received all required doses of any of the three vaccinations being used in the U.S. right now at least 12 weeks before the start of the study. The second will be people who have not been vaccinated at all. That latter group will receive the two-dose Moderna vaccine during the trial, and then a booster later on. Anyone who has previously gotten COVID-19, is pregnant or breastfeeding, or has had a serious reaction to a vaccine will not be eligible.

The study will span a full year. Those in the first group will receive $800 each as compensation, while the second group will get $1,400.

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