US Surgeon General in a recent interview told CNBC that the Biden administration is recommending booster shots for the American citizens who have been vaccinated in order tostay ahead of the deadly virus and its variants.
Booster Shot, ‘Prudent Thing To Stay Ahead Of The Coronavirus’ Say’s US Surgeon General
Dr. Murthy said that the top public health and medical officials in the Department of Health and Human Services sat together and decided that starting booster shots from the month of September would be the right thing to do, in order to ensure that the American citizens stay protected from the virus and its deadly variants.
Few months back, people thought things were returning to normal and the vaccine was being administered across the country at a steady rate, but then the Delta variant of the Coronavirus hit the country and it spread rapidly among the unvaccinated people as it was deemed to be highly contagious.
The introduction of the idea of booster shots to increase immunity has for once, given the Americans a chance to stay ahead of the Coronavirus and be prepared for its other variants so that the damage it causes is negligible. People were not expecting the return of the Coronavirus to be as deadly and contagious as the Delta variant is, so one needs to be careful and prepared for the future variants.
The third dose still needs the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and an advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but once it has been approved, the plan for the US health officials is clear.
Dr. Murthy said that the officials wanted to maintain transparency with the public regarding the booster shot and thus they are making plans and being transparent so as to assure the people that the officials are taking all measures to protect them and to avoid any sort of panic.
The FDA recently approved the booster shot for special use in case of immunocompromised people.Such people have weak immunity and thus their immune system had shown very little response to the initial two doses of the vaccine. For such cases, a third dose provides their body a good number of antibodies to fight off the virus and thus protect them from the Delta variant.
As per new data that the health officials received, the vaccine protection weakens over time and thus the officials are incline towards offering booster shots to the citizens. When the vaccination first started, research and reports suggested that the vaccines were 92% effective against the Coronavirus but with the introduction of the Delta variant the effectiveness dropped to 64%.
The booster shot will help improve the efficiency of the vaccine as it will increase the antibody count and provide the necessary protection to the citizens against different strands and variants of the coronavirus in the future.
But the people need to be involved in the process as well. Efforts just from the health officials will not be enough to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as after all it’s the people who need to take the vaccine and stop the spread.
The public has to offer its support to the officials by getting vaccinated at the earliest and then taking the booster shots once they are approved in the recommended time period which could be around 6 to 12 months after receiving the second dose. The Biden administration is focusing on transparency regarding the booster dose for a reason, which is to update people regarding measures against the spread of the coronavirus and involve them in the process.
