CDC Director Says THESE People Must Get The Booster Shot
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The Food and Drug Administration has authorized booster doses of the two-shot mRNA vaccines for people 18 and older. The authorization came as part of a battle plan, given that many states face upticks in Covid-19 infections.
Fourteen states, alongside New York City, have officially told all of their residents to get the booster shots before word arrived from the FDA. The best way to stop rising cases is to vaccinate the unvaccinated, and public health officials can’t wait to drive down breakthrough cases, as hospitals are at full capacity.
Previously, recommendations for boosters broadly covered the majority of vaccinated Americans. The now expanded booster authorization will bring coverage to more young people, which is a group that was intentionally left out two months ago due to experts needing more data.
They started questioning whether young people needed boosters, given the strong protection the vaccines are providing against hospitalization and death for that specific age group. They also started questioning if there was enough data on the safety of the third shot for this group, given the fact that much of the data was only targeted at elderly populations who had begun to lose protection.
On Friday, the FDA said that a risk-benefit analysis has been conducted with “additional real-world data”. The FDA said the benefits of a booster dose outweigh the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, heart inflammation conditions that have been linked to the mRNA vaccines on rare occasions, mostly in teenage and young adult men.
Throughout the course of this Covid-19 pandemic, the FDA worked a lot to make timely public health decisions as the pandemic evolves, FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement on Friday. So far, only the vaccines have proven to be the best and most effective defense against Covid-19.
Authorizing a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine for people 18 years of age and older will help increase protection against Covid-19, including all the serious consequences that can occur, like hospitalization and death.
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