Lucio Miele, M.D., Ph.D.
At the height of the fourth wave, the percentage of those unvaccinated in the hospital in Louisiana hovered in the upper 90s but now it’s dropped to 86%. Doctor Lucio Miele with LSU Health New Orleans said it’s another indicator of the need for booster shots because immunity naturally drops over time.
“Six or eight months or later after having received your vaccination you’re not going to have the same protection that you had two weeks after your vaccination,” said Miele.
Another factor for the percentage drop among those unvaccinated in the hospital with COVID is because Miele said we have a much more infectious virus now.
“The Delta variant and its descendants of which there are now quite a few, are far better at infecting humans,” said Miele.
The declining percentage over time Miele said reinforces the need for booster shots, much like annual flu shots that are advised yearly.
“The booster shot could help us avoid a scenario in which declining immunity in people who were vaccinated a long time ago facing a virus that is far more infectious than the virus that was going around a year ago,” said Miele.
Currently, only the Pfizer vaccine has received emergency use authorization from the FDA for booster shots. It’s expected that the same will happen in the next few days for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
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