The latest news on the fourth dose of the new coronavirus vaccine: Is it out? When to fight?

The antibody resistance of the new coronavirus vaccine will gradually decrease over time, and at this time a booster shot will be needed. Most people have already received the booster shot, so what is the latest news about the fourth dose of the new crown vaccine? Is it out? When to fight?

1. The latest news on the fourth dose of the new crown vaccine

According to CCTV News, Zhang Wenhong, director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, said in an interview: Research including variants has clearly shown that the new crown vaccine is effective in reducing severe illness and mortality, especially the third dose of the vaccine can increase antibody levels dozens of times. Once local cases occur, we can minimize the severity of the patient's condition to the lowest level within our capabilities. There is no need to rush for the fourth dose of vaccine now, as we will have more international experience to use by then.

2. Is the fourth dose of the new crown vaccine out? When to fight?

Currently, there are two types of new coronavirus vaccines: homologous booster immunization and sequential booster immunization, both of which are the third shot. There is no news about the fourth dose of the new crown vaccine yet, and the future will depend on the development trend of the epidemic.

On December 21, 2021, Israel announced that the fourth round of vaccinations would be open to specific groups, including people over 60 years old and medical personnel. Medical staff participating in the trial received the third injection by August 20, 2021. According to test data, the antibodies in these medical staff increased fivefold one week after the fourth injection.

3. Who can receive sequential booster immunization?

(1) People aged 18 and above;

(2) Two doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine must be administered, and these two doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine must be from the Beijing-based Sinopharm, Wuhan-based Sinopharm, or Beijing Sinovac Biotech;

(3) 6 months after completing 2 doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccine;

(4) No homologous booster immunization has been performed before, that is, the third shot has not been given.

For people who meet the above four conditions at the same time, when getting the COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, they can choose to get one booster shot of Zhifei Longcoma's recombinant protein vaccine or CanSino's adenovirus vector vaccine, which have different technical routes from the original ones.

4. Can homologous reinforcement and sequential reinforcement be selected together?

Relevant data show that whether it is the Delta strain or the Omicron strain, vaccination with the new coronavirus vaccine has a certain effect on preventing new coronavirus infection and retransmission, and has a significant effect on preventing pneumonia and severe illness, especially the effect is more prominent after booster immunization. Both homologous booster immunization and sequential booster immunization are booster immunizations, and are effective in preventing new coronavirus infection after vaccination. For people who meet the vaccination requirements, they can choose one of them.

In general, it is still unknown when the fourth shot should be given and whether it is necessary. We need to wait for the results of subsequent research. It is not the case that the more vaccinations the better.