UK launches COVID-19 ‘booster’ shot trial with seven vaccines

British officials on Wednesday launched a national coronavirus “booster” shot trial to study the effects of a third shot in extending protection against COVID-19.

Under the trial, seven coronavirus shots, including some vaccines that have already been approved, will be tested among nearly 3,000 volunteer participants, according to Reuters.

The country has reportedly planned for the possibility of rolling out a vaccination campaign for booster shots before this winter. Officials originally aimed to get the whole adult population on a two-dose vaccination schedule by this summer, Reuters reported.

Britain’s Southampton University’s professor of pediatric immunology and infectious diseases, Saul Faust, is co-leading the trial and told Reuters that the goal is to provide politicians and vaccination planners with information to aid them “in their decision on whether to boost anybody with a third at all, or – if they are going to get a booster – which vaccine might be used.”

Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, Valneva and CureVac COVID-19 shots will be used in Britain’s trial, with third shots being administered to people who have already received two doses of Pfizer or AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

“The data from this world-first clinical trial will help shape the plans for our booster programme later this year,” British health minister Matt Hancock told Reuters.

The initial results of the trial are expected in September, according to the news outlet.

America’s top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci said last month that Americans should know if they need to get a third COVID-19 vaccine shot by this fall.