A Harvard epidemiologist is predicting fully vaccinated senior citizens will need to get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots in the next two months for continued protection against coronavirus as the highly contagious Delta variant drives new infections across the country.

Dr. Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, told New York magazine that against the backdrop of breakthrough infections and Delta becoming the new “baseline” in the pandemic, he expects to see elderly people who have been fully vaccinated become susceptible to the virus the “further and further out” they get from their initial vaccination. 

Bodies have an “immune age” and the elderly will likely need a booster nine months post-vaccine, he said.

“I can almost guarantee that our senior citizens will get boosters in the U.S. in the next two months, I think the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] is going to recommend it — there’s no way they’re not,” Mina said. “I think the only reason we haven’t announced it already is that the CDC doesn’t want to concern people. The moment they admit that they’re going to boost people, it sends a message, like, are we in vaccination purgatory here? But the writing’s on the wall.”

Continue reading at Boston.com.