AMNY
The US government said on
Wednesday, Aug. 18 it plans
to make COVID-19 vaccine
booster shots widely available
to all Americans starting on
Sept. 20 as infections rise from
the new Delta variant.
The White House is prepared
to offer a third booster
shot starting on that date to
all Americans who completed
their initial inoculation at least
eight months ago, the US Department
of Health and Human
Services said in a statement.
The booster shots initially
will be given primarily to
healthcare workers, nursing
home residents, and older people,
all of whom were among
the fi rst groups to be vaccinated
in late 2020 and early
2021, the department said.
Top US health offi cials said
in a joint statement that they
based their decision to offer
boosters on data showing that
the protectiveness of COVID-19
shots currently authorized in
the United States begins to diminish
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in the months after the
shots are given.
The offi cials included President
Joe Biden’s chief medical
adviser Anthony Fauci as well
as the heads of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention,
the Food and Drug
Administration, and the National
Institutes of Health.
“The available data makes
very clear that protection
against SARS-CoV-2 infection
begins to decrease over time
… and in association with the
dominance of the Delta variant,
we are starting to see evidence
of reduced protection
against mild and moderate disease,”
the offi cials said. “We
conclude that a booster shot
will be needed to maximize
vaccine-induced protection
and prolong its durability.”
The offi cials said that they
anticipate that people who received
Johnson & Johnson’s
single-dose COVID-19 vaccine
will also need boosters.
US offi cials previously authorized
a third dose of vaccines
from Pfi zer Inc and Moderna
Inc for people with weak
immune systems. The broader
booster program follows
mounting evidence that protection
from the vaccines wanes
after six or more months, particularly
in older people with
underlying conditions.
Vaccinations have been
widely available in the United
States, unlike many other
countries, and yet the Delta
variant has caused what health
experts describe as a pandemic
of the unvaccinated as a significant
number of people choose
not to get inoculated.
The new COVID-19 cases
REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
also include a number of people
who have been vaccinated,
though they are far less likely
to experience severe disease or
death than the unvaccinated.
In recent weeks, several
other countries also have decided
to offer booster shots to
older adults as well as those
with weak immune systems,
including Israel, France and
Germany.
The decision announced by
the US offi cials represented
a shift from the optimism of
health authorities in May in
curbing the pandemic when
Biden set a goal to vaccinate
70% of American adults with
at least one dose by July 4.
That goal was achieved about
a month late.
Daily cases in the United
States soared from fewer than
10,000 in early July to more
than 150,000 in August as the
far more infectious Delta variant
took hold.
More than 1 million Americans
had independently
sought an extra vaccine dose
before the offi cial decision on
boosters was announced, according
to federal data.
Health
Vaccine boosters to
start in September
LET’S KEEP OUR CHILDREN SAFE AND OUR SCHOOLS COVID-FREE.
For more information about COVID-19 vaccines
and where to get one, visit nyc.gov/covidvaccine.
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