WASHINGTON D.C: The plan to provide COVID-19 vaccine boosters in the United States was based on concerns that a decrease in the vaccines' ability to protect against milder infections could also mean people would have less protection against severe illness. This premise has yet to be proven.
U.S. health officials cited data showing waning protection against mild and moderate illness from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines more than six months after vaccination. Boosters will be made widely available starting on Sept. 20.
People who received their initial vaccination eight months earlier will be offered the additional dose.
"Recent data makes clear that protection against mild and moderate disease has decreased over time. The waning property is likely due to both decreasing immunity and the strength of the widespread Delta variant," U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy told reporters.
"We are concerned that this pattern of decline we are seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death."
Data on so-called "breakthrough" infections in vaccinated people shows that older Americans have so far been the most vulnerable to severe illness.
On Aug. 9, almost 74% of the 8,054 vaccinated people hospitalized with COVID-19 were above the age of 65, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 20% of those cases ended in deaths.
Based on available data on vaccine protection, it is not clear that younger, healthier people will be at risk.
"We don't know if that translates into a problem with the vaccine doing what is most important, which is protect against hospitalization, death, and serious disease. On that, the jury is still out," said Dr Jesse Goodman, an infectious disease expert at Georgetown University in Washington and a former chief scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Several countries have decided to provide booster shots to older adults and people with weak immune systems. European Union officials recently said that they did not need to give booster shots to the general population yet.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC and FDA, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some experts questioned the focus on booster shots when around 30% of eligible Americans have yet to get even a first vaccine dose, despite new COVID-19 cases and deaths surging across the country.
"The more important thing, I think, at this point than boosters is making sure we get the vaccine in an arm that hasn't had one as fast as we can," said Dr Dan McQuillen, an infectious disease specialist in Burlington, Massachusetts, and the incoming president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
All experts interviewed by Reuters also emphasized the need to inoculate the vast number of people worldwide who have yet to access COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr Isaac Weisfuse, Epidemiologist and Adjunct Professor, Cornell University Public Health, said, "You can end up in a situation where you are chasing your tail, giving more and more boosters in the U.S. and Western Europe, while more dangerous variants are coming from other places,"
"In reality, you should be vaccinating the rest of the world to avoid new variants."
(Reporting By Deena Beasley in Los Angeles and Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington DC)
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