Americans vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna sera will be able to receive a third injection eight months after the second, beginning the week of Sept. 20, U.S. health officials announced Wednesday, Aug. 18.
“The available data clearly show that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decline over time after the first doses of vaccine,” justified in a joint statement by senior officials, including the director of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Rochelle Walensky and the acting chief of the United States Drug Administration (FDA), Janet Woodcock.
“In addition to the prevalence of the Delta variant, we are beginning to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate cases of the disease,” they added.
“We are ready to offer booster doses for all Americans beginning the week of September 20, beginning eight months after the second dose,” they said in the statement, also signed by the White House adviser on the pandemic, Anthony Fauci.
However, this decision depends on the authorization of an additional dose of these two vaccines by the United States Drug Administration (FDA), they said.
The premières personnes à pouvoir bénéficier de cette dose de rappel seront les “pensionnaires de maisons de retraite”, “d’autres personnes âgées” and de “nombreux professionnels de santé”, who ont été les premières catégories de population à se faire vacciner aux United States.
The first vaccine injections took place in December 2020 in the United States, and the Pfizer and Moderna remedies were urgently licensed just one week apart.
A booster dose is also “probably necessary” for people who have received a single injection of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, health officials say. But vaccinations with this serum did not begin in the United States “until March 2021,” and data on the matter are expected “in the coming weeks.” People vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson are a minority in the United States (nearly 14 million).
