Good Morning America hosts questions what could bring the pandemic-related vaccine recommendations to a halt.
QUICK FACTS:
- During a recent edition of Good Morning America, ABC News Senior Medical Contributor Dr. Jennifer Ashton spoke to the nature of vaccines and the pandemic.
- Ashton questioned the long-term wisdom of constantly getting boosted for COVID-19 and discussed whether boosters and natural immunity are working against new variants.
MORE ON THE HOSTS’ QUESTIONS ABOUT THE VACCINE RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Dr. Ashton’s remarked during the show, “There’s a new published study out in the Lancet … about the fourth dose and what happens to our antibody levels. It is not a surprise … that after the fourth dose, antibody levels rise significantly.
- Antibodies “surge in the several weeks after that dose. We’ve known that for a while. But here are the caveats: we don’t know how long that lasts, number one, and our immune response, remember, is not just about antibodies. It’s about that T-cell response also, which you can’t measure as well as just a pure antibody level. And it’s about whether [boosters are] blocking or neutralizing antibodies to the variants that we’re seeing,” she went on to say.
- “Of course, you’re going to get a surge in your antibody levels. But how long that lasts is the issue. And it’s certainly not just about more boosting for everyone. People who have high antibody levels, there’s the potential — I want to underscore the potential, we haven’t seen any evidence of this — um, of this immune phenomenon known as tolerance, where if you already have high antibody levels and you get another booster, that your immune system can start to say, well, what do I need it for, and can kind of start to shut down.”
- “If you’re in that category of people that who CDC and FDA is recommending to get a booster, 50 and over, 65 and over, with a chronic medical condition, yes, by all means, but everybody else: don’t think that more boosting is the answer. We don’t know that that’s the case yet.”
BACKGROUND:
- Conservatives have consistently pushed back against the required use of vaccines due to a number of issues, including medical freedom.
- The question of the efficacy of the shots, possible damage to the recipient, and the potential to “shed” the illness after having taken the vaccine are all questions that are at this early stage without answers.
