Single Dose May Not Be Sufficient to Protect From COVID-19

Yasmine Sami

Politics

31st January 2021

Single Dose May Not Be Sufficient to Protect From COVID-19

No evidence to prove the number of doses needed(Getty).

The Claim

Two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are needed for protection against COVID-19.

News posted on

Emerging story

Users on social media shared a statement by the FDA company alleging protection appeared 12 days after receiving the first dose of the vaccine. The statement finds that two doses are required in order to obtain full protection.

The company explained that obtaining two doses provide protection from COVID-19 by 95%. After the statement, social media users started circulating the news on Twitter.

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar’s investigation found that early stages of vaccine trials have demonstrated that a single dose of the vaccine does not provide adequate protection against the disease. It was also observed in the third phase of the trials that there were more antibodies and T cells in the blood after two doses than after one dose.

Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of the vaccine by looking at its ability to prevent symptoms, rather than its ability to prevent infection with the virus. We now realize that some infected people are not showing any symptoms. There is no evidence, to prove that one or even two doses of the current vaccines will prevent infected people from infecting others

In July 2020, Pfizer said that researchers observed the highest level of neutralizing virus antibodies a week after the participants' second dose.