As COVID continues to wane, will additional booster shots be needed?
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As COVID-19 cases continue to decline and COVID restrictions are lifted, the U.S. is returning to more of a sense of normalcy. This has many thinking if additional booster shots will be necessary.
There is no clear answer at this point. While CDC data in February indicated the effectiveness of Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)/BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) booster shots subsides after about four months, public health officials haven't come out to endorse additional boosters.
In an interview with The New York Times last month, Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the president, said that although he is often asked if a fourth shot is necessary, the protection still afforded by a single booster is good.
In the same article, Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the U.S. FDA, said there isn't enough data yet to make a determination on a fourth shot.
Another recent Times article argues that based on several recent studies, another booster is likely not needed for many months, if not longer than that.
"We're starting to see now diminishing returns on the number of additional doses," John Wherry, director of the Institute for immunology at the University of Pennsylvania, told the newspaper.
A study from Israel of people inoculated with a fourth shot that came out in January found that while it increased the level of antibodies, many people still became ill with the Omicron variant.
The need for -- or lack thereof -- additional booster shots could have a significant impact on some of the COVID vaccine makers, especially those whose revenues are reliant on vaccine revenue. This includes BioNTech (BNTX), Moderna (MRNA), and Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX). 
However, there is some comfort for them in that they still have orders to fill from the U.S. and many other countries. That should keep them busy through 2022. But beyond that is a question mark at this point.
There is also a need to provide initial vaccination and first booster shots in many poorer countries that could sustain the biotechs longer. But at some point -- and perhaps sooner than expected -- they will need to find other revenue streams in their pipelines.