As good as the different COVID-19 vaccines are, they do not generate lifelong antibodies and the immunity they provide slowly wanes with time.
Despite this the data suggest that although people become more prone to getting reinfected, the protection against severe disease is still around 85%. In other words, their chances of ending up in the hospital are low.The same studies show that an additional jab would increase this percentage of protection up to 99%
Experts predict a new peak in the number of cases over the winter months, especially considering that we are not going to apply social distancing restrictions to prevent this. In these conditions, extending the safety net to a further 10% of the population will substantially reduce the total number of people who will become seriously ill.
The conclusion is that we should vaccinate the elderly (and some middle-aged too), the frail and the vulnerable (pregnant women) as soon as possible, in order to keep hospital pressure to the minimum and save a fair number of complications and deaths over the next months.
The regimen of yearly boosters for some may be the scenario for the upcoming years, similar to what we already do for the flu, so we probably just need to get used to it...
