SAN ANTONIO — The COVID vaccine is proven to be effective in preventing hospitalizations and death, but, protection begins to decline over time.
That's why U.S. health officials say a booster shot is on track to be available to everyone by fall.
"We're seeing that immunity over time starts to wane at the 8-9 month period. As that happens, we're going to see more breakthrough infections. A booster shot is going to increase our immunity and therefore make it likely that we're less likely to pass on the virus to others," said Dr. Michael Almaleh, the head of WellMed's COVID-19 task force.
Dr. Almaleh said that in the future we might need additional booster shots, and it's difficult to say if COVID-19 will become an endemic illness like the cold or flu.
"Right now only 50% of our population is vaccinated, only 60% of those that are eligible to be vaccinated are vaccinated. So we're nowhere near the 80, 85, 90% vaccination rate that we need to be to reach a situation that people refer to as herd immunity, and I don't know if we're going to get there because of vaccine hesitancy, unfortunately," he said.
"The science is very clear at this point that vaccinations save lives. It keeps people out of the hospital reduces infections, and while there are breakthrough infections, the vaccination process works extremely well," he said. "It's very protective, and it's really protective at our most important goals, which is to keep people from getting critically ill or dying."