{"id":3126,"date":"2022-03-30T14:34:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T14:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/us-opens-second-covid-boosters-to-50-and-up-others-at-risk-the-associated-press\/"},"modified":"2022-03-30T14:34:58","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T14:34:58","slug":"us-opens-second-covid-boosters-to-50-and-up-others-at-risk-the-associated-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/30\/us-opens-second-covid-boosters-to-50-and-up-others-at-risk-the-associated-press\/","title":{"rendered":"US opens second COVID boosters to 50 and up, others at risk – The Associated Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Americans 50 and older can get a second COVID-19 booster if it\u2019s been at least four months since their last vaccination, a chance at extra protection for the most vulnerable in case the coronavirus rebounds.
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for that age group and for certain younger people with severely weakened immune systems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later recommended the extra shot as an option but stopped short of urging that those eligible rush out and get it right away. That decision expands the additional booster to millions more Americans.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, CDC\u2019s director, said it was especially important for older Americans \u2014 those 65 and older \u2014 and the 50-somethings with chronic illnesses such as heart disease or diabetes to consider another shot.
\u201cThey are the most likely to benefit from receiving an additional booster dose at this time,\u201d Walensky said.
There\u2019s evidence protection can wane particularly in higher-risk groups, and for them another booster \u201cwill help save lives,\u201d FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said.
For all the attention on who should get a fourth dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, only about half of Americans eligible for a third shot have gotten one \u2014 and the government urged them to get up to date. Two shots plus a booster still offer strong protection against severe illness and death, even during the winter surge of the super-contagious omicron variant.<\/a>
The move toward additional boosters comes at a time of great uncertainty, with limited evidence to tell how much benefit an extra dose right now could offer. COVID-19 cases have dropped to low levels in the U.S., but all vaccines are less powerful against newer mutants than earlier versions of the virus \u2014 and health officials are warily watching an omicron sibling <\/a> that\u2019s causing worrisome jumps in infections in other countries.
Pfizer had asked the FDA to clear a fourth shot for people 65 and older, while Moderna requested another dose for all adults \u201cto provide flexibility\u201d for the government to decide who really needs one.
FDA\u2019s Marks said regulators set the age at 50 because that\u2019s when chronic conditions that increase the risks from COVID-19 become more common.
Until now, the FDA had allowed a fourth vaccine dose only for the immune-compromised as young as 12. Vaccines have a harder time revving up severely weak immune systems, and Marks said their protection also tends to wane sooner. Tuesday\u2019s decision allows them another booster, too \u2014 a fifth dose. Only the Pfizer vaccine can be used in those as young as 12; Moderna\u2019s is for adults.
What about people who got Johnson & Johnson\u2019s single-dose shot? They already were eligible for one booster of any kind. Of the 1.3 million who got a second J&J shot, the CDC said now they may choose a third dose \u2014 either Moderna or Pfizer. For the more than 4 million who got Moderna or Pfizer as their second shot, the CDC says an additional booster is only necessary if they meet the newest criteria \u2014 a severely weakened immune system or are 50 or older.
That\u2019s because a CDC study that tracked which boosters J&J recipients initially chose concluded a Moderna or Pfizer second shot was superior to a second J&J dose.
If the new recommendations sound confusing, outside experts say it makes sense to consider extra protection for the most vulnerable.
\u201cThere might be a reason to top off the tanks a little bit\u201d for older people and those with other health conditions, said University of Pennsylvania immunologist E. John Wherry, who wasn\u2019t involved in the government\u2019s decision.
But while he encourages older friends and relatives to follow the advice, the 50-year-old Wherry \u2014 who is healthy, vaccinated and boosted \u2014 doesn\u2019t plan on getting a fourth shot right away. With protection against severe illness still strong, \u201cI\u2019m going to wait until it seems like there\u2019s a need.\u201d
While protection against milder infections naturally wanes over time, the immune system builds multiple layers of defense and the type that prevents severe illness and death is holding up.
During the U.S. omicron wave, two doses were nearly 80% effective against needing a ventilator or death \u2014 and a booster pushed that protection to 94%, the CDC recently reported. Vaccine effectiveness was lowest \u2014 74% \u2014 in immune-compromised people, the vast majority of whom hadn\u2019t gotten a third dose.
To evaluate an extra booster, U.S. officials looked to Israel, which opened a fourth dose to people 60 and older during the omicron surge. The FDA said no new safety concerns emerged in a review of 700,000 fourth doses administered.
Preliminary data posted online last week suggested some benefit: Israeli researchers counted 92 deaths among more than 328,000 people who got the extra shot, compared to 232 deaths among 234,000 people who skipped the fourth dose.
What\u2019s far from clear is how long any extra benefit from another booster would last, and thus when to get it.
\u201cThe \u2018when\u2019 is a really difficult part. Ideally we would time booster doses right before surges but we don\u2019t always know when that\u2019s going to be,\u201d said Dr. William Moss, a vaccine expert at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Plus, a longer interval between shots helps the immune system mount a stronger, more cross-reactive defense.
\u201cIf you get a booster too close together, it\u2019s not doing any harm \u2014 you\u2019re just not going to get much benefit from it,\u201d said Wherry.
The newest booster expansion may not be the last: Next week, the government will hold a public meeting to debate if everyone eventually needs a fourth dose, possibly in the fall, of the original vaccine or an updated shot.
Even if higher-risk Americans get boosted now, Marks said they may need yet another dose in the fall if regulators decide to tweak the vaccine.
For that effort, studies in people \u2014 of omicron-targeted shots alone or in combination with the original vaccine \u2014 are underway. The National Institutes of Health recently tested monkeys and found \u201cno significant advantage\u201d to using a booster that targets just omicron.
___
AP journalist Mike Stobbe contributed to this report.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n

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Americans 50 and older can get a second COVID-19 booster if it\u2019s been at least four months since their last vaccination, a chance at extra protection for the most vulnerable in case the coronavirus rebounds.The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for that age group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}