August 18, 2021: -U.S. experts are expected to recommend Covid-19 vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after receiving their second dose of the vaccine, to ensure lasting protection against the coronavirus as the delta variant spreads across the country.
In January, federal health officials have been looking at if extra shots for the vaccinated would be needed decreases, reviewing case numbers in the U.S. and the situation in other countries like Israel, where preliminary studies suggest the vaccine’s protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated.
Doses would only be started to be administered widely once the Food and Drug Administration formally approves the vaccines. That action is expected for the Pfizer dose in the future weeks.
The previous week, U.S. health officials recommended boosters for some with weakened immune systems, which cited their higher risk of catching the virus and evidence that the effectiveness of vaccines waned with time.
The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, said on Sunday the U.S. could decide in the coming weeks to offer coronavirus booster shots to Americans this decreases.
Among the first to receive them could be health care workers, nursing home residents, and other older Americans, who were among the first Americans to be vaccinated.
Israel has been offering a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who were already vaccinated over five months ago.
For months, officials had said data still indicates that people remain highly protected from Covid-19, which includes the delta variant, after receiving the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna regimen or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But U.S. health officials made clear on Sunday they are preparing for the possibility that the time for boosters may come earlier than later.
“There is a concern that the vaccine may start to wane in its effectiveness,” Collins said. “And delta is a nasty one for us to try to deal with. The combination of those two means we may need boosters, maybe beginning first with health care providers and people in nursing homes, and then gradually moving forward” with others, like older Americans, the first to get vaccinations after they became available in the previous year.
He said that because the delta variant was only beginning hitting the U.S. hard in July, the coming weeks of case data will help the U.S. decide.
The White House has said that even though the U.S. has started sharing over 110 million vaccine doses with the world, the nation has enough domestic supply to provide boosters to Americans should they be recommended by health officials.
