However, the Johnson & Johnson booster may be used in the following circumstances:
This is because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been associated with a rare but serious blood clotting disorder. “It makes age one of the greatest risk factors for a negative outcome, in terms of infectious diseases, such as COVID.”įor the majority of people, the CDC recommends the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Novavax boosters (and vaccines) over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “This is true with many types of vaccines, and it's also true of viruses, such as respiratory syncytial virus infection and influenza,” Dr. It also showed older adults and those who are immunocompromised to be much more vulnerable to hospitalization and death from COVID-19 than young, healthy people.Īnother consideration is that older people’s bodies mount a less robust immune response to COVID-19, even if they are vaccinated. In April, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the bivalent booster offered last fall provided added protection against severe illness and death from COVID-19, but it waned over time. That vulnerability is a growing concern as the bivalent boosters first offered last fall are already showing a decline in effectiveness. Older or immunocompromised people are more vulnerable to severe disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. Why is an additional dose of the bivalent vaccine allowed only for certain groups? The FDA also allows additional doses for immunocompromised people “at the discretion of, and at intervals determined by, their health care provider.” 2. You can self-attest to your immunocompromised status, which means you do not need documentation to get any COVID-19 vaccine doses you are eligible to receive, according to the CDC. You are also eligible for an additional booster two months out from your last shot if you are moderately or severely immunocompromised, meaning you’re an organ transplant recipient, you receive immunosuppressive medications or treatments (such as chemotherapy), you’re on certain medications that weaken your immune system over time (such as corticosteroids), or you have a weakened immune system due to a medical condition (such as cancer). If you are 65 and older, you are eligible for an additional bivalent booster if you had your primary COVID-19 vaccine and are at least four months out from a previous bivalent booster shot. But if you’re age 6 and older and have already received an updated mRNA vaccine, you don’t need to take any action unless you are 65 and older or immunocompromised. The CDC recommends that everyone 6 years of age and older receive an updated (bivalent) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of whether they previously completed their (monovalent) primary series. Should you get an additional COVID-19 booster? Roberts answered common questions about the FDA's decision to offer an additional COVID-19 booster to certain groups. That booster will be based on recommendations about current circulating SARS-CoV-2 virus strains.īelow, Dr. The agency is also planning to further simplify future COVID-19 vaccinations by offering a reformulated booster for a vastly expanded age group in the fall, around the same time as the flu shot becomes available. Roberts says.Īs part of a bigger plan, the FDA also announced that the current bivalent mRNA vaccines will replace the original monovalent Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which target the original, or ancestral, SARS-CoV-2 virus strain they are no longer authorized for use in the U.S. “I consider that number to be quite poor,” Dr. Still, only 42.4% of people 65 and older-and 16.7% of all eligible people in the U.S.-have gotten the first bivalent shot, according to the CDC. have been in people 50 and older, and the numbers increase with age, according to CDC data. What’s more, the vast majority of the more than 1.1 million deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. Studies have shown that COVID-19 vaccines can prevent COVID-related hospitalization and death. “I support the booster for those who are eligible and want to get it,” says Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist Scott Roberts, MD. The bivalent boosters are available from both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. This booster is identical to the reformulated, or "bivalent," booster introduced in fall 2022 in that it targets two virus strains: Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 and the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are offering a second bivalent booster shot. Those two groups are more likely than others to get severely ill or die from COVID-19-that’s why the U.S. The number of cases of COVID-19 may be dropping, but the disease is still a concern for those who are 65 and older (more than 53 million people in the United States) and those with weak immune systems (about 7 million people).
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