Federal health officials on Thursday reiterated that only certain people with compromised immune systems might need COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for now, in light of news that the Food and Drug Administration could soon authorize these shots for select individuals.
“As we have been saying for weeks, certain people who are immunocompromised such as people who have had organ transplants and some cancer patients may not have had an adequate immune response to just two doses of the Covid vaccine,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a COVID-19 briefing.
She said immunocompromised individuals who might need a booster shot make up a very small proportion of the population, estimating they account for less than 3% of adults.
“We’ve been working to identify how best to provide increased protection to these vulnerable people who are disproportionately impacted by severe outcomes due to COVID-19,” she said. “An additional dose could help increase protection for these individuals, which is especially important as the delta variant spreads.”
The CDC will host a meeting with its vaccine advisers Friday to discuss insights and recommendations about booster shots.
On Wednesday, media outlets reported that the FDA is expected to authorize third shots of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines for some people who are immunocompromised, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Thursday he believes that sooner or later booster shots will be needed more broadly for durability and protection and that officials are preparing for that eventuality.
“Right at this moment, apart from the immunocompromised,” he said, “we do not believe that others, elderly or non-elderly who are not immunocompromised, need a vaccine right at this moment. But this is a dynamic process, and the data will be evaluated.”
More than 900 people in the U.S. have received an unauthorized third dose of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a review by the Associated Press published last week. However, the news agency noted that reporting by health care providers is voluntary so the full extent of individuals who have gotten a third shot is murky.
Public health officials in San Francisco last week announced that people who received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine can get an extra “supplemental” dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine although the FDA has not approved the move.
Many studies are looking into how booster shots affect certain high-risk populations including health care workers, adults older than 60 years and those with weakened immune systems. The National Institutes of Health on Tuesday announced it launched a pilot study to examine antibody responses of third doses of approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in kidney transplant recipients who did not respond to two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech shots.
However, health officials are still evaluating the data from both domestic and international studies, Dr. Fauci said.
If regulators later approve boosters, the U.S. has the supply to offer the extra doses to people in a “fast and efficient way if and when the science dictates,” said Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator.
Recently, the head of the World Health Organization said wealthier nations should stop administering booster shots given that many countries are behind in administering a first round of shots. Despite this, Israel is administering boosters to older adults while other countries including Germany, Russia and Britain have greenlighted the extra shots for some people.
This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Shen Wu Tan can be reached at stan@washingtontimes.com.
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