- Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid-19 booster vaccine has been authorized for use in all people 18 years and older in the United States.
- The decision behind this was made when the country entered a new wave of winter pandemic.
- The CDC and FDA are now receiving injections, especially for people who are immunocompromised.
As the world’s worst-hit countries enter a new wave of winter pandemics, the United States authorized on Friday to provide Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccine boosters to all people 18 years and older.
In the past, people with weakened immune systems, people over 65, people at high risk of serious diseases, and people in high-risk occupations could use enhancers.
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock (Janet Woodcock) stated that the new decision “helps provide continued protection against Covid-19, including possible serious consequences such as hospitalization and death” .
A panel of experts convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) subsequently approved the decision to expand eligibility, while clearly recommending that all people over the age of 50 can use the booster, even if there is no underlying disease.
Camille Kotton, an infectious disease clinician at Massachusetts General Hospital, said:
I am really happy that we have made the recommendations clear and condensed so that all Americans can understand the vaccines recommended for them at this time.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky officially signed the expert group’s recommendation, stating that boosters “are important public health tools that can strengthen our defense against viruses as we enter the winter vacation.”
The US Food and Drug Administration stated that its decision was based on data showing that hundreds of people vaccinated with these two branded vaccines had a strong immune response to the booster.
Pfizer also conducted a clinical trial involving 10,000 people over the age of 16 and found that compared with people who did not receive the booster, the booster was more than 95% effective for symptomatic infections.
Both vaccines will be available to people six months after completing the main series.
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Pfizer’s vaccine dose is 30 micrograms, the same as the primary series, while Moderna’s dose is 50 micrograms, which is half of the primary series.
People who receive the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine are already eligible to receive any brand of booster two months after the first injection.
According to the latest data, as the country enters the fifth wave of the epidemic, the number of cases nationwide is increasing rapidly, with an average of 88,000 new infections every day, so an enhanced decision has been made.
The United States has officially become the most severely affected country, with more than 760,000 deaths.
Many unknowns
Before Friday’s decision, some outside experts expressed concern about expanding the booster for all adults.
Critics say that the vast majority of people who have been hospitalized or died due to Covid have not been vaccinated, and the best way to control the winter wave is to reach out to these people, not to supplement those who have been vaccinated.
They believe that a potential disadvantage is that a vaccine failure may lead to the conclusion that the vaccine is ineffective.
Another risk is an increase in vaccine-related cardiac inflammation (myocarditis), especially in young men. There is increasing evidence that, compared with Pfizer, the risk of Moderna vaccine may be greater, possibly because of its higher dose.
Both companies are conducting post-authorization studies to assess the risk of myocarditis after the third injection.
However, in general, both health agencies believe that the benefits outweigh the risks.
It is expected that by reducing symptomatic cases, boosters will also help reduce community transmission, although the extent to which this may occur is unclear.
It is also possible that instead of treating the third dose as a booster, the vaccine works best after three doses-this will become clearer over time and as data increases.
However, experts generally believe that boosters alone cannot solve the pandemic, and in the poorest countries, especially African countries, the number of people covered by the initial vaccination is still in the single-digit percentage.
Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus condemned the fact that the daily dose of vaccine in rich countries was six times the primary dose provided by low-income countries.
This increases the risk of worrying new variants in these areas, which may eventually evade the protective effects of current vaccines.
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