Offit made a similar point.
“It’s much easier to prevent severe critical disease, and I think you’re much more likely to have longer lasting protection against severe critical disease,” he said. “If that’s the goal, then I would imagine that vaccines would last for years.”
If this sort of lasting protection proves out, you might still get the sniffles from COVID, but it won’t land you in the emergency room.
“When you get a vaccine and you’re not wearing a mask, the virus still enters your nose and throat. It still begins to reproduce itself. And it still might cause some symptoms before your immune system gets activated,” Offit said.
Experts tracking COVID hospitalization rates are keeping in mind two factors as they assess whether boosters are needed — the health of each person’s immune system and the development of new coronavirus variants.
People with compromised immune systems — smokers, diabetics, the obese, the elderly — might need booster shots sooner if statistics show them landing in the hospital at increasing rates, Poland said.
On the other hand, younger people with healthy immune systems might have protection that lasts years and years.
It’s simply too soon to tell, experts say.
“Once you see significant numbers of people who have been fully vaccinated who are developing disease that’s severe enough to cause them to be hospitalized, that would certainly be a signal indicating that boosters are going to be required,” said Dr. Dial Hewlett, medical director of disease control at the Westchester County Department of Health, in White Plains, N.Y.