The Biden administration has decided that most Americans should get a coronavirus booster vaccination eight months after they received their second shot, and could begin offering third shots as early as the third week of September, according to administration officials familiar with the discussions.Officials are planning to announce the decision on Wednesday at the White House. Their goal is to let Americans who received the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines know now that they will need additional protection against the Delta variant, which is causing caseloads to surge across much of the nation. But the new policy will depend on the Food and Drug Administration authorizing additional shots.Recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was authorized as a one-dose regimen, will also most likely require an additional dose, the officials said. But they are waiting for results, expected this month, from a clinical trial that provided participants with two doses. So far, only about 14 million people in the United States have gotten the Johnson & Johnson shot, which the government began offering in March. The first Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were given in December.The first boosters would probably go to nursing home residents, health care workers and emergency workers, who were the first to be vaccinated last winter. They would likely be followed by other older people, then by the general population. Officials envision giving people the same vaccine they originally received.Some five million people in the United States — everyone who got two doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine by the end of January — would be eligible for boosters by late September under the plan. In all, more than 90 million people in the country have been fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s product, and more than 64 million with Moderna’s. But about 40 percent of the population has still not gotten even a first dose, a problem the administration will need to stay focused on even as it turns to providing boosters.Administration officials are expected to make the case Wednesday that even if the booster plan shifts based on new data, it is prudent to have a strategy in place now.White House officials are expected to present data showing that the vaccines’ protection against Covid-19 infections is declining — a trend they attribute to a combination of the Delta variant and a degree of waning in the vaccines’ protection. Unvaccinated people still make up the vast majority of those who become seriously ill or are hospitalized with Covid-19.The announcement comes as the Biden administration is struggling to regain control of a pandemic that it had claimed to have tamed little more than a month ago. President Biden had declared the nation reopened for normal life for the July 4 holiday, but the wildfire spread of the Delta variant has thwarted that. Covid-19 patients are again overwhelming hospitals in some states, and federal officials are worried about an increase in the number of children hospitalized just as the school year is set to begin.For hospitals and state and local governments, having to manage a new round of vaccinations amid the Delta surge adds another layer of complication to the response, said Dr. Janis M. Orlowski, chief health officer of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents 400 of the nation’s largest teaching hospitals.Before vaccinating health care workers, Dr. Orlowski said, hospitals will want data about side effects from booster shots, so they can know how to stagger vaccinations among their staff without hurting their ability to care for patients. “You can’t do the whole I.C.U. at the same time,” she said, “because you don’t want everyone getting fever and chills.”In interviews on Tuesday, hospital officials and doctors generally supported the push for booster shots. Unlike the vaccination campaign that began last winter, they said, this time there will be enough doses to go around, which should make things move more smoothly.The Coronavirus PandemicLatest Updates
Updated Aug. 18, 2021, 12:38 p.m. ETRestaurant owners sue New York City, hoping to block its ‘ridiculous’ vaccine mandate.Vaccines’ protection against virus infection is waning, C.D.C. studies suggest.Some Americans will be eligible for booster shots beginning in late September, federal officials say.“I think we’re running out of second chances,” said Dr. Matthew Harris, the medical director of the coronavirus vaccination program at Northwell Health, New York’s largest hospital system. “What keeps me up at night is the inevitability of a variant that is not responsive to the vaccine, so if this is how we stay ahead of it, I fully support it.”Dr. Danny Avula, Virginia’s vaccine coordinator, said his state has thousands of vaccine providers inBy: Sharon LaFraniere
Title: U.S. to Advise Boosters for Most Americans 8 Months After Vaccination
Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/us/politics/booster-shots.html
Published Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2021 16:35:13 +0000
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