Booster shots for you, and you – but not you, not yet…

The FDA’s action on boosters came yesterday and proved to be another confusing set of recommendations, all set to change sooner rather than later.

A scientific advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday recommended booster shots for recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine who are 65 or older or are at high risk of severe Covid-19, at least six months after the second shot. The committee did NOT recommend booster shots for the general population for those 16.

The decision pertains just to the Pfizer vaccinations but Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recommendations are expected to follow in the next few weeks. You can watch the hearing, here:

CDC

While this advisory committee opinion was granted at the end of the day by the FDA on Friday – the CDC will still need several days to release their advisory – and that – the Gold Standard – could come as soon as this weekend, but will probably not come until at least mid-week.

RIDOH

While they voted in favor of recommending a booster dose for select groups of people, CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations about vaccines that the FDA has approved. The CDC then sets the adult and childhood immunization schedules based on those ACIP recommendations.

As is our practice, Rhode Island will wait for ACIP to issue its guidelines before authorizing the use of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine in Rhode Island. ACIP is currently scheduled to meet on September 22nd and September 23rd to make a recommendation. 

(A booster dose is a dose of a vaccine that is given to someone who is already vaccinated and received protection from that vaccination, but that protection decreased over time. Third doses are currently available to Rhode Islanders who are moderately to severely immunocompromised.)

CVS

We have requested a statement from CVS which was not responded to by press time this morning.

CVS & Walgreens

Both pharmacy chains have been giving booster shots for those with compromised/weakened immune systems.

The WHO

The WHO said three days ago that boosters given to healthy people is not something they would recommend when many poor countries lack the original vaccine for their people and that booster recommendations should be given with a global perspective in mind.

This is a developing story.