Dose Of Truth: How Many Shots Of The Vaccine Will I Need?

There’s a lot of false information out there about the two leading COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. We wanted to provide the facts and answer some questions. 

I’m not a doctor but know a few, so we asked: How many shots of the vaccine will I need? 

“Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will require two separate vaccine injections. For the Pfizer vaccine, the second injection is three weeks after the first, and for the Moderna vaccine, the second injection is given four weeks after the first," said Dr. Jasmine R. Marcelin, an infectious diseases physician at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

"A couple of the other companies, and specifically Johnson and Johnson, are looking at the efficacy of a single dose as opposed two," said Dr. Josh Lesko, Brief19's lead policy analyst. 

"For the vaccines that are currently being approved and are in the approval process, all of them need two shots to be effective. It will not be as effective if you only get one shot. So if you want to get this, go ahead and plan on getting both doses of the vaccine," explained Dr. Payal Patel, an infectious diseases physician with the University of Michigan.