Pennsylvania health leaders brew covid boosters for the 65+ population

Pennsylvania health officials promised on Tuesday that providers of covid-19 vaccines would be ready when federal guidelines on potential booster shots are released, which is expected to happen on Thursday.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory group last week issued a narrow recommendation that Americans should receive a vaccine booster, saying that, for now, only those 65 and over should be eligible.

The FDA’s final decision is expected later this week, along with advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We can assure you that, first, we have the vaccine available in Pennsylvania, and second, the providers are ready to start giving boosters as soon as we have guidance from the CDC,” said the Acting Secretary of Health, Alison Beam.

Beam issued a new ordinance requiring vaccine providers across the Commonwealth of Nations to be prepared to meet demand for vaccines, including requirements for online scheduling, dedicated phone numbers, walk-in availability, and collaboration with organizations to reach those who cannot leave their homes.

“These four basic steps are not new concepts in Pennsylvania – they mirror orders previously issued during the initial vaccine deployment,” Beam said.

Orders like these, she said, “have helped us get to where we are today.”

Cases across Pennsylvania and most of the country continued to rise, mostly from those unvaccinated. It is in part for this reason that the FDA advisory committee rejected the notion of recalls for all.

“Right now, it’s clear that the unvaccinated are the source of transmission in the United States,” CDC’s Dr. Amanda Cohn said at Friday’s meeting.

The CDC said it was considering boosters for the elderly, nursing home residents and frontline healthcare workers, rather than all adults.

Any booster doses approved this week will be different from the third doses received by the immunocompromised.

“These are people who have not developed the full immune response like everyone else has,” Acting GP Denise Johnson said of the third doses. “It’s a third dose to get them the immunity most other people have (from two doses).”

The purpose of the booster shots will be to boost immunity that has weakened since the initial doses.

“It’s the difference between not getting enough response in the first place and a diminishing response over time,” Johnson said.