COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will soon be made available to recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines starting the week of September 20, the White House announced on Wednesday.
Adults over age 18 who received the two-shot vaccines will be eligible for the third shot eight months after receiving their second and final dose.
The decision is pending approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a recommendation made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advisory committee.
There is currently no plan in place for Americans who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
‘Our goal has been to determine when that time might come for the COVID-19 vaccines,’ Dr Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General, said during a news conference on Wednesday.
‘…Recent data makes clear that protection against mild and moderate disease has decreased over time.
‘This is likely due to both waning immunity and the strength of the widespread Delta variant.’
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Americans who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine will be eligible for booster shots starting the week of September 20 (file image)
Dr Vivek Murthy (pictured), said at a news conference on Wednesday that waning vaccine efficacy combined with dangers posed by the Delta variant are the reasons the White House plans to open the door for a third dose of the vaccine
The announcement comes after the FDA approved vaccine booster shots for immunocompromised Americans last week.
Officials cited the waning immunity the current crop of COVID-19 vaccines have, combined with the Indian ‘Delta’ variant’s ability to cause breakthrough cases as the reason why boosters are needed.
The CDC released three studies on Wednesday, which director Dr Rochelle Walensky said shows that ‘vaccine protection begins to decrease over time.’
One study from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found the Pfizer vaccine is only 42 percent effective against the Delta variant, and the Moderna vaccine is only 76 percent effective.
A second study found that vaccines’ effectiveness against COVID-19 diagnoses dropped from 96 percent to 80 percent in New York state between May 2021 and July 2021.
The third study found the effectiveness of the shots against infections in nursing home residents was 75 percent. Post-Delta, this had fallen to 53 percent.
While the shot’s ability to defend a person from contracting the virus decreases over time, fully vaccinated people are still very unlikely to suffer hospitalization or death from COVID-19.
However, White House officials said at the press conference that they have concerns the decline of the vaccines’ effectiveness will continue.
Effectiveness of the Moderna (yellow) and Pfizer (blue) COVID-19 vaccines began to drop in June and July as the ‘Delta’ variant became more prevalent in Minesota. Moderna had an effectiveness of 76%, while Pfizer’s vaccine was 42% effective, according to a Mayo Clinic study
Dr Rochelle Walensky (pictured), director of the CDC, says that more than one million uauthorized booster shots have already been distributed. She was among a panel of health officials at a White House news conference on Wednesday announcing plans to start rolling out vaccine booster shots to Americans in September
The third dose will provide people with additional antibodies and shore up protection against Delta, and any other future variants.
Declining efficacy is common among vaccines.
The flu shot is required every year due to how quickly the efficacy declines, and even some longer term vaccines like the tetanus shots require boosters every year.
While there are no plans yet laid out, the FDA says they plan to eventually approve booster shots for J&J recipients, but cannot yet do so due to a lack of data.
‘We…anticipate booster shots will likely be needed for people who received the J&J vaccine,’ a joint statement from the HHS and public health experts said on Wednesday.
‘Administration of the J&J vaccine did not begin in the U.S. until March 2021, and we expect more data on J&J in the next few weeks. With those data in hand, we will keep the public informed with a timely plan for J&J booster shots as well.’
That has not stopped many from going out of their way to receive unauthorized shots of a Pfizer or Moderna dose to compliment their J&J vaccine, though.
Last week, the CDC reported that more than one million Americans across the country have received unauthorized shots.
The new booster shot directives will effect over 150 million Americans who are fully vaccinated with either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.
Not all agree with making a third dose available, though.
The chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO) said there will be ‘even more dire situations’ if high-income countries start administering boosters before low-income countries even administer first shots to their populations.
On Wednesday, Dr Soumya Swaminathan said that the pandemic cannot be controlled if a majority of the developed world remains unvaccinated.
‘We believe clearly that the data does not indicate that boosters are needed,’ Swaminathan said at a news conference in Geneva.
White House officials also announced that they believe the country will hit 200 million people at least partially vaccinated at some point on Wednesday.
Currently, around 60 percent of Americans have received at least one shot, and about half of the country is fully vaccinated.
Experts believe the country will need to reach somewhere around 80 percent of the population fully vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity, meaning there is still a long way to go.
Vaccine demand in the country is on the rise, though, as the Delta variant causes a nationwide surge.
More than 500,000 Americans are getting vaccinated every day, an increase of the lowest points late in spring where only 300,000 were getting jabbed every day.
Vaccine outreach has not kept up with the Delta variant, though, which is causing a surge in cases that may end up being the largest the country has ever seen.
Currently, the U.S. is averaging around 140,000 new cases every day – a mark not reached since the backend of the massive winter surge on February 2.
The current case rate is a 600 percent increase over the 20,000 cases per day the nation was recording on July 1, when it seemed the pandemic was nearing its end.
America also eclipsed 1,000 deaths in a single day on Tuesday, the first time the mark has been reached since March.
A majority of new cases, and almost all deaths, are among the unvaccinated, as health officials urge the remaining unvaccinated people to get their shots.
For all the latest health News Click Here
