COVID booster shots for more Americans could arrive by fall | Health Info

By Ernie Mundell and Robin Foster Health Day Reporters

MONDAY, Aug. 16, 2021 (HealthDay News) – With around 100 million stored doses of the coronavirus vaccine on hand, the Biden administration is developing a plan to begin offering boosters to many Americans as early as this fall.

Among the first to receive them could be healthcare workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans, officials said.

On Sunday, Dr Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health, again pleaded with the unvaccinated for vaccination, calling them “sitting ducks” for a Delta variant infection.

“It is going very sharply upwards with no sign of having peaked,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

Federal health officials have looked at the number of cases in the United States “almost daily” as well as the situation in countries like Israel, where preliminary studies suggest that vaccine protection against serious illness has declined among those vaccinated. in December or January, the Associated press reported. Israel is offering a coronavirus booster for people over 60 who were vaccinated more than five months ago.

In the United States, cases so far still indicate that people remain highly protected against COVID-19, including the Delta variant, after receiving the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna regimen or the Johnson single-injection vaccine. & Johnson.

But, “there is concern that the vaccine is starting to lose its effectiveness,” Collins said. “And Delta is a problem that we have to try to cope with. The combination of these two means that we may need reminders, perhaps starting with healthcare providers first, as well as by people in nursing homes and then gradually moving forward “with others, like older Americans who were first vaccinated when they became available at the end of last year.

Since the Delta variant didn’t start hitting the United States hard until July, the “next two weeks” of case data will help US officials make a final decision, Collins said.

Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said people with weakened immune systems can receive a third dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, to better protect them as the Delta variant rages on.

But more people may soon need more protection.

“If it turns out that as the data comes in we see that we need to give an extra dose to people in nursing homes, in fact, or to the elderly, we will be absolutely ready to do it very quickly, ”Dr Anthony said. Fauci said on Sunday CBS News’ “Facing the Nation.”

While the country is currently recording an average of around 129,000 new infections per day – a 700% increase since early July – that number could soon reach 200,000 in the coming weeks, a level not seen since among the worst days of the pandemic in January and February, Collins said.

About 60% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose and nearly 51% are fully immunized, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This, in turn, has caused a shortage of intensive care unit beds, nurses and other frontline staff in areas that can no longer cope with the flood of unvaccinated patients.

“It’s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in this space,” Collins said. “But here we are with the Delta variant, which is so contagious, and this heartbreaking situation where 90 million people are still unvaccinated that are ducks sitting for this virus, and that’s the mess we’re in. in a world of hurt. “

FDA approves third COVID shot for vulnerable Americans

The United States Food and Drug Administration on Thursday cleared a third ‘booster’ injection of coronavirus vaccines for people with weakened immune systems, as the highly contagious Delta variant continues to emerge across the country .

Expanding emergency use of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is expected to help protect patients who are considered most vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. The clearance includes people who have had solid organ transplants and those whose immune systems are also compromised, the FDA said.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was not included in the authorization because there is not yet sufficient data on this vaccine, according to the agency.

With the approved booster dose, doctors will now have the flexibility to give additional injections to vulnerable patients. About 3% of Americans have a weakened immune system for many reasons, ranging from a history of cancer to the use of certain medications such as steroids.

“The country has entered a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the FDA is particularly aware that people with immunosuppression are particularly at risk of contracting serious illness,” Acting Commissioner Dr Janet Woodcock said in a press release. declaration. “After a careful review of the available data, the FDA determined that this small, vulnerable group could benefit from a third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.”

“Other fully vaccinated people are properly protected and do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time,” Woodcock added, while noting that the agency was “actively engaged in a scientific process and rigorous with our federal partners to determine if an additional dose may be needed in the future. ”

Despite the clearance, many scientists argue that the immunocompromised population is too diverse to uniformly recommend additional injections of the coronavirus vaccine, The New York Times reported.

Studies suggest that patients such as organ transplant recipients often show a weak immune response to the standard vaccine dosage regimen, and therefore may benefit from a third vaccine. A recent study by Canadian researchers found that a third dose of Moderna vaccine improved the immune response of people in this group, Times reported.

Dr Dorry Segev, of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, said about half of transplant patients had no antibody response to the currently licensed dose of vaccine, the Times reported. His team studied 30 transplant patients who were vaccinated but had negative or weak positive antibodies. [blood] titers, which indicated a poor response of their immune system to the injections. After an additional injection, 14 of them had higher antibody titers.

Although the vast majority of Americans who have been vaccinated have received Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, it is not yet clear how immunodeficient people who have received Johnson & Johnson vaccines should proceed. Times noted.

Dr Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who worked with Johnson & Johnson to develop their vaccine, said the FDA’s decision to make third injections available for some with weakened immune systems made sense .

He added that there was also a long and successful history of mixing and pairing different vaccines for other viruses, and that could be true for COVID vaccines. There is no data yet to determine whether protection against the virus is enhanced by such an approach, admitted Barouch. But researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health have a study underway that should provide answers by early fall, the Times reported.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more information on COVID-19[feminine.

SOURCES: Presse associée ; Le New York Times

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