Biden’s head of science says the “vulnerable” will be the first to get boosters as fist protection studies continue.
The United States is preparing for the possibility that a booster shot will be needed between nine and twelve months after people are initially vaccinated against COVID-19, a White House official said Thursday.
Although the duration of immunity after vaccination is being studied, booster vaccines may be needed, said David Kessler, chief scientist of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response working group at a committee meeting. Congress.
“The current thinking is that those who are most vulnerable will have to go first,” Kessler said.
Initial data have shown that the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech partners retain most of their effectiveness for at least six months.
Even if this protection lasts much longer, experts have said that the rapid spread of variants of the coronavirus and others that could arise could lead to the need for regular booster shots, such as annual flu shots.
The United States is also monitoring infections in people who have been completely vaccinated, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the House subcommittee hearing.
Of 77 million people vaccinated in the United States, there have been 5,800 such advanced infections, Walensky said, including 396 people who needed hospitalization and 74 who died.
Walensky said some of these infections have occurred because the vaccinated person did not produce a strong immune response. But the concern is that in some cases they occur in people infected with more contagious virus variants.
U.S. officials made statements about preparations for reinforcements while top UN officials urged rich countries to give the COVID-19 vaccine overdose to the COVAX program that supplies lower-income countries to try to end with the pandemic and recovering the world economy.
The United States, which this year donated half of the $ 4 billion pledged to COVAX, has yet to make new commitments.
“As we get to this point where we’re sure all Americans can be vaccinated, we’ll lean toward doing more around the world,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Sunday’s Meet The Press on Sunday. NBC network.
Blinken noted that Congress has recently provided more than $ 11 billion for the overall response of COVID-19 to the United States.
The United States has seen more than 31 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and nearly 3 million deaths since the pandemic began, according to the Johns Hopkins University count.