BREAKING NEWS: White House announces COVID-19 booster shots will be available to Americans who received Pfizer and Moderna vaccines eight months after second dose starting week of September 20
- Recipients of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be eligible for a vaccine booster shot eight months after receiving the second dose
- Booster shots will begin to rollout on September 20, pending approval from the FDA and recommendations made by the CDC's advisory committee
COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will soon be made available to recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines starting the week of September 20, the White House announced on Wednesday.
Those who received the two-shot vaccines will be eligible for the third shot eight months after receiving the second.
The decision is pending approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a recommendation made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) advisory committee.
There is currently no plan in place for Americans who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Americans who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine will be eligible for booster shots starting the week of September 20
The announcement comes after booster shots were approved for immunocompromised Americans last week.
Officials cited a the waning immunity the current crop of COVID-19 vaccines have, combined with the Indian 'Delta' variant's ability to cause breakthrough cases as the reason why boosters are needed.
Recent data from Minnesota finds the Pfizer vaccine is only 42 percent effective against the Delta variant, and the Moderna vaccine is only 76 percent effective.
While the shot's ability to defend a person from contracting the virus decreases over time, fully vaccinated people are still very unlikely to suffer hospitalization or death from COVID-19.
Other data gathered by the CDC finds that the vaccine's effectiveness dropped from 96 percent to 80 percent in New York State, and from 75 percent to 53 percent in some nursing homes.
Effectiveness of the Moderna (yellow) and Pfizer (blue) COVID-19 vaccines began to drop in June and July as the 'Delta' variant became more prevalent. Moderna had an effectiveness of 76%, while Pfizer's vaccine was 42% effective.
The third dose will provide people with additional antibodies and shore up protection against Delta, and any other future variants.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Comments 0
Share what you think
No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.
