A federal panel of vaccine experts punted the decision to recommend a third COVID-19 shot for immunocompromised people to the Food and Drug Administration after a full day of public debate.
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The onus is on the FDA to update clinical use guidelines for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to allow an additional shot for the most vulnerable patients before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s panel of vaccine experts can make a recommendation, said Dr. Sara Oliver, an epidemiologist at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Until then, immunocompromised people “should be counseled about the potential for reduced immune response to COVID vaccination and the need to continue to follow prevention measures, such as wearing a mask, social distancing, and avoiding crowds,” Oliver said during the public Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting on Thursday.
The question of whether organ transplant recipients, chemotherapy patients, and others with fragile immune systems should receive an extra vaccine dose arose amid growing evidence the vaccines do not offer the same protection against severe illness as they do for people with fully functional immune systems.
For instance, a June 23 report published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 101 organ transplant recipients given a third dose of vaccine saw their prevalence of antibodies to the coronavirus increase from 4% after the first dose, 40% after the second dose, and 68% after a third dose, indicating the extra shot mounted a stronger response.
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Meanwhile, some panel members pressured the FDA to speed up its deliberations over whether to recommend the additional shots, citing the danger many of these patients are in despite being fully vaccinated.
“This is running away with us. Time is of the essence,” said Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, the American Medical Association liaison to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. “I appreciate how closely [the] FDA is looking at the safety and how much research is being put into this decision. But I wish it would all happen faster.”
The spread of the highly transmissible delta variant has caused concern, even among healthy people, the vaccines cannot stand up against the strain, which has been shown to cause infections and hospitalizations, mostly in those who have not been vaccinated.
The Biden administration has not recommended people with full-functioning immune systems to get an additional “booster” dose of vaccine.
