Misleading: People need five doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to be fully immunized.

By: Pallavi Sethi
November 19 2021

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There is no evidence that people need five vaccine doses.An unsubstantiated claim on The Daily Expose, a fake news site, states that fully immunized people may not have "enough protection" against COVID-19. The article's headline misleadingly says, "people will need FIVE Covid vaccine doses for immunity." However, the article lacks context and therefore misleads the public. There is currently no evidence that healthy people without an underlying condition will undoubtedly require booster shots. On August 9, 2021, The Daily Expose, notorious for regularly spreading anti-vaccine narratives, claims that fully vaccinated people do not have protection against COVID-19. Although the article quotes Matt Sallberg, a Swedish vaccine researcher, it fails to provide context. While speaking to Aftonbladet, a local Swedish newspaper, Sallberg states that vaccinated people may lose protection against the virus within a year and may eventually require a booster shot. However, he does not question the vaccine's efficacy in fully vaccinated people. Several studies have found that vaccines effectively prevent severe illness and death against the Delta variant, according to Factcheck.org. U.K.'s Public Health England (PHE) suggests that the vaccination program has prevented 7.9 million infections and 28,000 deaths in England. Nature reports that although several countries, including Israel and Germany, are rolling out booster shots, scientists are still unsure if COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are needed for most of the population. However, vulnerable groups, including fully vaccinated people who are immunocompromised, may not get complete protection after two doses. For instance, a Johns Hopkins study highlighted that upon being fully vaccinated, only 50 percent of people with a weakened immune system showed an antibody response to COVID-19. Therefore, at this point, countries are planning to administer booster shots to the elderly and immunocompromised. More data is required to know if the majority of the population requires a booster shot. Therefore, it is misleading to say that people need five doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.