WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is planning to give Americans age 50 or older the option of a second booster of the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine without recommending outright that they get one, according to several people familiar with the plan. Major uncertainties have complicated the decision, including how long the protection from a second booster would last, how to explain the plan to the public and even whether the overall goal is to shield Americans from severe disease or fr
Mia Collins gives a COVID-19 booster vaccination to Sharon Scott in Cleveland, Miss., Jan. 6, 2022.
Federal health officials have hotly debated the way forward, with some strongly in favor of a second booster now and others skeptical. But they have apparently coalesced around a plan to give everyone age 50 and up the option of an additional shot, in case infections surge again before the fall. In the fall, officials say, Americans of all ages, including anyone who gets a booster this spring, should get another shot.
On the other hand, 78% is still a drop from the 91% effectiveness that was found after two months, and the vaccines’ potency may fall further with more time. If a new wave hits in the coming months, even a somewhat modest decline in protection against hospitalization could have a huge impact, especially among the roughly 55 million Americans 65 or older, who have borne the brunt of the pandemic so far.
But Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor and medical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said that while healthy younger people with one booster were fine at this point, older people “should probably start receiving fourth shots now.” Unlike with the first round of regulatory decisions on booster shots, no meetings of the advisory committees of either the FDA or the CDC are planned before the decision on second boosters. The panels’ recommendations are nonbinding but are usually followed. Bypassing those committees will draw criticism.
The supply appears to be there: States have 131 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on hand. Many experts say there is no evidence that an additional shot could hurt people’s immunity by habituating them to coronavirus vaccines.
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