With the latest Covid-19 surge upending American life yet again, an official rollout of booster doses could begin within weeks pending FDA authorization. And it’s likely that three doses of the vaccine are needed for full protection, reports CNN quoting Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Urge for three shots of jab
Fauci cited two Israeli-based studies showed a decrease in infections among people who got a third or booster shot.
There was good reason to believe that a third dose “will actually be durable, and if it is durable, then you’re going to have very likely a three-dose regimen being the routine regimen,” added Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a briefing Thursday.
“Right now, we don’t have that indicator, which is why we’re recommending that not only people get vaccinated across the board — regardless of whether they were infected in the past or not — but also when it comes to getting these extra doses to sustain and extend your protection, that we do that broadly,” he said.
Additional doses for the immunocompromised
Additional doses were granted emergency use authorization by the FDA this month for those who are immunocompromised.
Even though the doses are not yet available to the public, local health departments nationwide have seen a recent surge in calls from people wanting to make appointments, according to the National Association of County and City Health Departments.
Vaccination is the solution
The emphasis remains on increasing vaccination rates among the US population to help overcome the pandemic. Approximately 52.7% of the total US population are fully vaccinated.
But of the 10 states with the worst Covid-19 case rates over the past week, seven of them also had among the 10 best vaccination rates, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Source: CNN
