MD- some experts have announced that Covid-19 vaccine boosters may be introduced in the USA from Sept 20th if the FDA and CDC sign-off on the proposal.
Booster Vaccines May Be Available In USA From Sept 20th
Some US health officials and experts in the medical field brought out a joint statement this Wednesday. The booster vaccination programme will begin from the 20th of September and will be available for those who had completed their full vaccination course at least 8 months ago.
This means that those eligible for the vaccines will include frontline health care workers, permanent residents in nursing homes as well as senior citizens. There are also plans for taking the booster shots to residents living in different care facilities. These people were some of the first individuals to get vaccinated and they are also at a very high risk of severe diseases from the infections.
The announcement on Wednesday clarified that the Covid-19 vaccines are still highly effective against Covid-19 infections and can prevent instances of severe diseases, hospitalization requirements and chances of fatality. The vaccines are being able to prevent death and hospitalization in case of the new Delta variant of the virus as well. But there is also evidence that the natural immunity stimulated by vaccines often decreases over time. So some experts believe that a booster vaccine shot is important.
These experts feel that in the coming months as the natural immunity of more and more citizens start to increase then the cases of death and hospitalization will once again start to increase. So they are suggesting a booster shot to prolong the durability of the vaccine antibodies against the disease.
The statement on Wednesday had the approval of Walensky, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Dr. Francis Collins, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other high profile experts in USA’s medical field. Initially the booster doses will only be available for the Moderna and the Pfizer BioNTech vaccines.
The vaccine rollout for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine has only started from March so experts claim that there is not yet enough data about the decline in immunity for the virus. If in the coming months doctors notice a declining trend in natural immunity from the J & J vaccine then booster shots for that vaccine may also be introduced.
The CDC has also announced that they will study the data on booster doses among adolescents to find the possible timeline for booster rollout among the younger population as well. The statement from the experts ended with an announcement that the USA is donating more than 600 million vaccine doses to different countries all over the world.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, the Surgeon General of the White House claims that the booster rollout will be an attempt to stay ahead of the pandemic curve. This measure has been put in place after three different studies conducted in New York, by the Mayo Clinic and by the CDC MMWR found similar trends for declining vaccine immunity over a period of time.
The plans for the booster vaccine are subject to approval from the FDA and an advisory committee of the CDC. Dr. Murthy has made it amply clear that no decision on boosters will be taken without the explicit support of the FDA and the ACIP on the matter.
But the good news for American citizens is the fact that Jeff Zients, The Coronavirus Response Coordinator of the White House has declared that USA already has enough vaccines for safely providing booster shots for all their citizens. There will be no crisis for vaccines and anyone who is eligible will be able to get a booster shot as and when it is released.
