Pfizer to seek FDA authorization for COVID-19 vaccine booster shot

A coronavirus vaccine vial.
(Image credit: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Pfizer plans on asking the Food and Drug Administration next month for emergency authorization of a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, the company told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Early data from its booster study suggests that after a third shot, antibody levels jump five- to 10-fold, compared to the second dose given months earlier, Pfizer's Dr. Mikael Dolsten said. He added that data from Britain and Israel shows the vaccine "neutralizes" the highly contagious Delta variant "very well." The Delta variant now accounts for more than 50 percent of all new infections in the United States.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.