The Biden administration is expected to approve broader access to extra doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for the general public, not just immunocompromised people, as early as this week.
BOOSTER SHOT ELICITS STRONG IMMUNE RESPONSE TO DELTA VARIANT, PFIZER TELLS FDA
Nursing home residents, seniors, and healthcare workers who were prioritized for the first round of vaccinations will likely have early access to the boosters, the Washington Post reported. Those who were vaccinated in January and February are most likely now to have significantly less protection against COVID-19 variants.
The new guidance, which will require signoff from the Food and Drug Administration, will pertain to recipients of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. They will be eligible to receive a third shot of one of those vaccines about eight months after they got the second shot. Recipients of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine are also expected to need a booster dose, but the company is waiting for clinical trial results, which are expected later this month.
Federal officials have grown concerned that even vaccinated people are at risk of getting sick due to the highly contagious delta variant. Data from Israel, which vaccinated most of its population faster than the U.S., shows that people who received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in January or February saw protection from the disease decline.
Pfizer-BioNTech has initiated the process of getting its booster authorized by the FDA. The vaccine-maker submitted early study results to regulators on Monday that showed people who received the third dose elicited a stronger immune response to the delta variant compared to those who only completed the two-dose regimen.
“This initial data indicate that we may preserve and even exceed the high levels of protection against the wild-type virus and relevant variants using a third dose of our vaccine,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said. “A booster vaccine could … better control the spread of virus variants during the coming season.”
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The FDA has authorized extra doses for immunocompromised people, an especially vulnerable group that makes up less than 3% of the U.S. population. However, people have already successfully gotten a booster dose despite the lack of federal approval to do so. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that at least 1 million people have received extra shots through duplicitous means.
To date, over 72% of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of a vaccine, while nearly 62% have been fully vaccinated, according to federal data.
