By Blake Haas
BLOOMINGTON – As research continues around the COVID-19 vaccine, a Bloomington Doctor says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could recommend a booster vaccine down the road.
However, according to Dr. John Wieland, Medical Director of Acute Care Services at Carle BroMenn Medical Center, that timeline is still unclear.
“I do think that there will be some boosters recommended at some point in the near future.”
Wieland added that a booster shot six months from now could be premature.
“The real question is how long does that immunity last? So if you get a measles vaccine, you basically have lifetime immunity because the measles virus doesn’t mutate. But, this virus has been shown to mutate, but it actually doesn’t mutate as much as, say, the flu virus, the influenza virus. So that’s why we need a flu vaccine every year. And even in the years that we get vaccinated, there’s no guarantee because of the effectiveness of that vaccine is much lower because of the mutated ability of the virus.”
A recent study by Mayo Clinic reports around 94% of people in the world would need to get vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
“There are varying degrees of herd immunity. So the more vaccinated individuals you have in your tight little community. The more likely that you have heard protection. So your little-heard can be protected, whereas the national heard can’t get there.”
As of Monday morning, approximately 143,691 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in McLean County.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
