MADISON, Wis. -- As new Pfizer reports come out on booster shots, along with likely annual vaccines, UW Health's Chief Quality and Safety Officer says he's not surprised.


What You Need To Know

  • Medical experts react to Pfizer recommendations on 'likely' booster and annual COVID shots

  • UW Health's Dr. Jeff Pothof says he believes boosters will become a necessity at some point 

  • Merck's Former Head of Vaccines, Dr. Soren Christiansen, believes COVID shots will become like the 'flu shot'

  • Mutations and variants could make boosters a reality

Dr. Jeff Pothof says as COVID-19 keeps mutating, it makes the need for additional shots at some point a necessity.

"I think it's just, you know, natural kind of human thought that a lot of these things are a magic bullet, so if I get vaccinated once like that's it, that it should cover it forever," Dr. Pothof said.  "And although I wish science and medicine work that way it often does not," he added.

Meanwhile, Sharps Technologies CEO and former head of of Merck Vaccines Dr. Soren Christiansen says it's a brave new world when it comes to COVID vaccinations.

"I mean this is never ending, something pops up, and i'm sure something will probably pop up again with the new mutations, etcetera," Dr. Christiansen said.

He believes the mutations and variations mean many more shots in the arm.

"Pretty sure that at one point in time, your immune immune response will start to decline, meaning that you would need to have a booster. So I think it would be more or less like a, like the flu that you will need a yearly vaccination," he said.

And while some won't want to accept the future, UW Madison Sophomore Claudia Young says she believes it's inevitable and something she must do in the 'new normal'.

"Honestly, anything to get this pandemic to be over, I'm willing to do anything and I know that like, there are new variants that are new strains, and that some of these vaccines aren't super protected against them, so I'd totally be open to getting another shot if that means I'm more protected and I help other people in my community say away from COVID," Young said.

You can learn more about the Pfizer vaccine booster report, here