Biden administration expected to recommend COVID-19 booster shot at 8 months after second dose

Officials have been actively looking at whether extra shots for the vaccinated would be needed as early as this fall.

News 12 Staff

Aug 17, 2021, 2:13 PM

Updated 1,226 days ago

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The Biden administration is expected to recommend COVID-19 booster shots for those who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, eight months after the second shot.
Health officials say the vaccines are working, but because their efficacy does wane after several months, they want to make sure people have as much protection as possible against the delta variant.
Results from a study in Israel that exclusively administered the Pfizer vaccine show its effectiveness against symptomatic infection peaked at 96% two months after the second dose.
Four months later, it went down to 90%, and by six months it was at 84%.
Booster shots will only begin to be administered once the FDA formally approves the vaccines.
As long as the shots are issued under an emergency use authorization, no one but the FDA can recommend boosters.
That is expected for the Pfizer shot in the coming weeks and Moderna a few months after.
Officials are continuing to collect information about the one-shot J&J vaccine to determine when to recommend a second.
Among the first to receive a booster could be health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans, who were some of the first to be vaccinated late last year.
For those who haven't been vaccinated yet and may be more skeptical, infectious disease expert Dr. Harish Moorjani says they should still consider getting the vaccine.
"Go get yourself the vaccine because the data on vaccine protection is so good, it is so good that not doing the vaccine is making the wrong choice and this virus...this delta variant...COVID virus is going to make you pay a heavy price. I'm seeing it in the hospitals now," says Moorjani.
The New York state Department of Health tells News 12 when guidance and information is released by the FDA and CDC, it will review and act swiftly.
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