Different Shots

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Anchor lead: Different age groups will need different Covid-19 vaccines, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Did you know that children, adults, and elderly people all receive flu vaccines based on their age and immune response? The same is very likely to be needed when it comes to a Sars-CoV2 vaccine, says Andrew Pekosz, a vaccine expert at Johns Hopkins. And that may stymy current vaccine front runners.

Pekosz: Just because you’re first to cross the line doesn’t always mean that you’re the best. Because it’s quite possible that some of the ones that are still just entering phase three trials, may actually have better efficacy. The other thing that’s important for us to understand is oftentimes we think of a vaccine as one size fits all. We have to understand that immunizing  children is different from immunizing adults is different from immunizing the elderly. Each of those age groups has a very different response to infection and a very different disease progression.   :33

Pekosz says even the need for more than one shot for sufficient immunity may vary according to age. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.