* Biden administration is planning to recommend most Americans get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot eight months after
they complete their second dose
* The recommendation will apply to those to received the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna vaccines
* Health officials plan to announce the administration's decision later this week with boosters to be offered as early as mid-
September
* It comes less than a week after the FDA approved booster shots for immunocompromised Americans
The Biden administration is expected to recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second shot.
Federal health officials are planning to announce the decision as early as this week, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
This means that the nearly 155 million Americans who received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines could receive a third dose as early as September.
In the announcement, officials will stress that boosters will be needed to offer protection against the Indian 'Delta' variant as it sweeps across the country.
Over the last month, America has lost control of the pandemic that the White House claimed it had curbed around the Fourth of July.
Cases have surged by 150 percent in the last three weeks and patients in states such as Florida, Louisiana and Texas are overwhelming hospitals, with conference rooms, cafeterias and outdoor tents turned into makeshift Covid wards.
Doses would only begin to be administered widely once the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally approves the vaccines.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's independent panel - the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices - would also have to recommend the doses.
Among the first to receive boosters will likely be health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans, who were some of the first Americans to be vaccinated once the shots received emergency use authorization last December.
Officials are also planning to recommend that people receive a booster made from the same company as their initial two shots.
This means that people who receive two doses of the Pfizer vaccine should get a third dose of Pfizer and those who were given two doses of the Moderna vaccine should receive a Moderna booster.
Last week, the FDA expanded the emergency use authorization of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to allow them to be administered as boosters for those with weakened immune systems, citing their higher risk of catching the virus and evidence that the vaccines' effectiveness waned over time.
More and more research has shown that people with weakened immune systems have low or undetectable antibody levels, even after two doses.
A study in May found that all cancer patients developed fewer antibodies after being vaccinated compared to healthy participants and 10 percent barely developed antibodies at all.
Another study in June looked at 30 organ transplant recipients and found that 24 developed negative antibody levels - meaning they did not have any immune-fighting cells - after two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.
Despite this evidence, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for a moratorium on COVID-19 vaccines until every country could vaccinate at least 15 percent of their populations.
However, third doses are currently approved in several countries including Chile, France, Germany and Israel.
Israel, which exclusively administered the Pfizer shot, has been offering a booster to people over 60 who were already vaccinated more than five months ago in an effort to control its own surge in cases from the Delta variant.
France and Germany have also approved third doses for vulnerable populations with plans to start administering the shots next month.
For months, officials had said data still indicated that people remain highly protected from COVID-19, including the delta variant, after receiving the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna regimen or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Since then, more than 198 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with more than 168 million fully vaccinated.
Still, the country is experiencing a fourth surge of virus cases due to the more transmissible delta variant, which is spreading aggressively through unvaccinated communities but is also responsible for an increasing number of so-called 'breakthrough infections' of fully vaccinated people.
Israel, which exclusively administered the Pfizer shot, has been offering a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who were already vaccinated more than five months ago in an effort to control its own surge in cases from the delta variant.
Previously, health experts had said that there was no evidence to suggest that fully vaccinated Americans needed booster shots.
But U.S. health officials made clear Sunday they are preparing for the possibility that the time for boosters may come sooner than later.
'There is a concern that the vaccine may start to wane in its effectiveness and Delta is a nasty one for us to try to deal with.,' Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told Fox News Sunday.
'The combination of those two means we may need boosters, maybe beginning first with health care providers, as well as people in nursing homes, and then gradually moving forward' with others, such as older Americans who were among the first to get vaccinations.
He said that because the Delta variant only started hitting the country hard in July, the 'next couple of weeks' of case data will help the U.S. make a decision.
Officials were continuing to collect information as well about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was only approved in the U.S. in late February, to determine when to recommend boosters, one of the officials told the AP.
The White House has said that even though the U.S. has begun sharing more than 110 million vaccine doses with the world, the nation has enough domestic supply to deliver boosters to Americans should they be recommended by health officials.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9900075/Sources-US-recommend-COVID-vaccine-boosters-8-months.html
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Topic: Biden administration will recommend COVID booster shots for ALL Americans eight (Read 776 times)
February 13, 2009, 07:04:11 pm
