# I am beginning to think that this pandemic won't end --\> now focussed on vaccine booster timing questions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-beginning-to-think-that-this-pandemic-wont-end-now-focussed-on-vaccine-booster-timing-questions/930740>\
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone\
**Tags:** covid-quarantine\
**Created:** [January 17, 2021, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-beginning-to-think-that-this-pandemic-wont-end-now-focussed-on-vaccine-booster-timing-questions/930740 "2021-01-17T16:45:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2021, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-beginning-to-think-that-this-pandemic-wont-end-now-focussed-on-vaccine-booster-timing-questions/930740/56 "2021-02-24T05:34:08Z")

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> [@Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2021 Breaking News](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/619):
>
> what we’re talking about is the difference between more widespread distribution and use of a partial vaccine does that very likely provides some protection and a limited distribution of a more complete vaccination that, while offering stronger immunity in those who receive the dose, offers less protection to the population as a whole.

I understand the good intentions behind your argument, but there’s an important point you haven’t considered: it’s not that some protection is better than none; it’s that there’s little evidence the first dose provides much protection beyond the first few weeks:  
[See this Scientific American article](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/should-we-change-covid-vaccine-doses-to-reach-more-people-what-the-data-say1/):

> In the trials, the Pfizer vaccine provided partial immunity about two weeks after the first dose, with an efficacy of 82 percent. **But there are no data on whether protection lasts longer than three weeks** , when the second dose was given.

And [this from the British Medical Journal](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210114-covid-19-how-effective-is-a-single-vaccine-dose):

> Pfizer and BioNTech themselves have already [urged caution](https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n18#:~:text=The%20trials%20of%20the%20Oxford,overall%20participant%20numbers%20were%20small.) on the grounds that their data ends at day 21, and “there is no data to demonstrate that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days”. **It’s possible that the protection people seem to have will suddenly drop off after that point – in fact, this wouldn’t be surprising based on the way the immune system usually works**.

[all bolding mine]

So we’re not talking about twice as many people having a pretty good level of immunity; we’re talking about the strong possibility that people having had only one dose will have very little immunity 4 weeks later, while that one dose is still being distributed.

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