CDC recommends fully vaccinated adults receive booster COVID-19 vaccines | Rollout to start next month
RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Wednesday, the nation’s highest office and top health officials from the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated adults receive a booster shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines when rollout begins Sept. 20. That recommendation from the CDC comes just days after its booster rollouts began for immunocompromised individuals.
VCU Health expert Dr. John McCarty says while the vaccines are still effective, the evolution of new variants means the boost is more necessary.
“There was sufficient data from our ongoing monitoring of this virus, the vaccine, and what’s happening to make this a strong recommendation,” McCarty said. “What’s driving this is also the emergence of the delta variant, which by and large, when I look at who is in our intensive care units, it’s basically full of young people who have not been vaccinated.”
McCarty says that the data the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are up to 95 percent effective against the disease, but its effectiveness is much less in those with weakened immune systems. He says there are two groups to consider with different booster recommendations, the first is those who are immunocompromised.
“The immunocompromised is a different population because there the recommendation is if you are at least 28 days after your second vaccine - get a third,” McCarty said, “Those patients either have diseases or treatments or medications that actively interfere with the effectiveness of getting tighter protection.”
For everyone else whose been vaccinated, McCarty says there’s no need to rush for that third dose. The CDC recommends that people wait up to eight months after their last vaccine dose.
Health experts recommend that the third shot be the same as the last vaccine received.
“For the general population, they’re suggesting that if you have been more than eight months after being given both doses, then that is when the booster shot should be given,” McCarty said.
Those who were first to receive the vaccine at the beginning of the rollout out, like and first responders and those in nursing homes, should be first up to receive the booster, followed by those in lower phase groups.
McCarty says that people should check with their doctor to see if they qualify to get that booster shot sooner than the general population.
“I’ve seen too many people in the intensive care unit wishing they had got their vaccine,” McCarty said. “We have the ability to work together to maintain our health and the health of our community, but it requires getting vaccinated.”
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