US would approve booster shots for 3 COVID-19 vaccines at 6 months, not 8

[ad_1]

Kamala Harris in Vietnam Evelyn Hockstein / Pool / AFP / Getty Images

U.S. officials said last week that adults vaccinated with the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines should start receiving boosters eight months after their second dose was given, starting in mid-September. Now someone familiar with the plans tells The Wall Street Journal, federal regulators will likely approve boosters for the three approved vaccines – Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – starting six months after inoculation.

The data the Food and Drug Administration is reviewing from vaccine manufacturers and other countries is based on boosters administered at six months, the Newspaper reports. “The Biden administration and the companies have said there should be enough boosters that they plan to start distributing more widely on September 20. The United States has purchased a billion doses combined from Pfizer and Moderna.”

Deployment of the booster for adults who are not immunocompromised is dependent on FDA approval and a recommendation from an external vaccine advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preliminary studies show significant increases in immune protection, but “that doesn’t mean every patient should be boosted at six months,” says Leana Wen, professor of health policy at George Washington University.

There is some evidence that vaccines lose some potency after several months, and the Delta variant of the coronavirus has infected more people vaccinated than previous strains, although most breakthrough infections are mild.

The booster injections talks come as the United States has more than 100,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, a level last seen on January 30, before vaccines became widely available. The Washington Post reports. Almost a third of these hospitalizations are in Florida (17,000) and Texas (14,000), states with below-average vaccination rates, large populations, and governors opposed to vaccine requirements and of masks. The number of new daily cases is also almost back to January levels – an average of 148,000 cases on Wednesday compared to 151,000 on January 30 – but COVID-19 deaths, 1,1,000 per day, are well below average daily 3,100 recorded at the January peak.

You may also like