COVID-19 vaccines: 4 things to know

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Immunity differs from person to person

Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson interviewed Dr. John Dye, the chief of viral immunology at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the headquarters for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, for her syndicated program "Full Measure."

When Attkisson asked Dye to confirm that "vaccines are proven to last a period of a few months," he answered in the affirmative.

"Not every human being is the same," Dye said. "Some people may need a booster shot after six months, whereas other people, depending on their immunity, may not need it for a year or two."

Dye also weighed in on the "different variants of the virus," rejecting the notion that newly discovered variants of the coronavirus should be classified as "strains."

"There has to be a certain amount of genetic diversity between one isolate and another isolate to say these are distinct 'strains' of a virus," he detailed. "The number of changes that is occurring between person x and person y and person z and person xx is not different enough to actually classify these things as different strains."

"That's a good thing," Dye maintained. "When you talk about different strains, you have a better chance of having a ... vaccine or treatment not work because it's more divergent. ... If we narrow our window and this is what we have — a more narrow window — we have a more likely chance of being able to protect against this particular isolate, this particular variant and the other variants that come out."

Attkisson asked if he was suggesting that it is "not necessarily more alarming that we're seeing this United Kingdom variant identified in the United States."

Dye responded: "It was a matter of time before it got here."