The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering whether to recommend yet another coronavirus booster shot this spring, especially for people most at risk for severe complications.
The spring booster vaccine is the same vaccine approved last fall and will be formulated to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant.Vaccines are also very Effective against JN.1 subvariantscurrently responsible for nearly all Covid infections in the United States.
While the majority of Americans are unlikely to choose to get a second shot, and only 21.9% of adults have received the latest version of the vaccine, experts say it’s important to have a vaccine available sooner rather than later. says it’s important.
“I think it would be a mistake to wait until the fall,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “There is clear evidence that either the vaccine or previous infection provides relative protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death for perhaps four to six months, but declines significantly after that.”
Earlier this week, the CDC said there were no immediate plans to lift isolation guidelines for people who test positive for the coronavirus.
CDC advisers will vote on whether to recommend a coronavirus booster therapy in the spring. Meetings scheduled for February. 28According to people close to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The panel is expected to focus its discussion on those most vulnerable to the coronavirus, including those over 65 and those with weakened immune systems, such as organ transplant recipients.
“The discussion will be aimed at those who are most receptive to public health recommendations,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. “The committee will be considering second doses for people at high risk or who wish to be vaccinated in the same rigorous way that this issue has been raised.”
But Dr. William Warbel, associate director of epidemiology and quantitative sciences at the Johns Hopkins University Transplant Research Center in Baltimore, said there are some vulnerable people who normally heed their doctors’ advice to get vaccinated. Even said they were experiencing vaccine fatigue.
“Some people have received seven or eight doses of the vaccine,” Werbel said. “Transplant recipients are more receptive and much more likely to follow recommendations, especially if they are made by a transplant center, but because of this social fatigue and social disillusionment with COVID-19, that upper limit is somewhat It’s going down.”
He added that he would recommend the spring booster to his patients if the CDC approves it.
Experts generally recommend waiting at least two months before receiving a COVID-19 vaccine or the next vaccination after a COVID-19 infection, even for high-risk patients.
vaccination rate The rate is as high as 42% for people 65 and older, according to the CDC. Research shows that people who received the latest booster vaccination 54% less likely to get infected with coronavirus This winter. This level of protection currently holds against nearly all strains of COVID-19 seen in outbreaks. JN.1.
Although the CDC is not required to follow the advisory committee’s advice, it generally does.
As of this month, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and deaths due to the new coronavirus have decreased, according to . Latest CDC data.
“We’re lucky that the vaccine is safe,” Werbel said, “and it’s definitely safer than getting infected with the coronavirus.”
