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“Absolutely vaccinated” does not imply three pictures, however many locations now require boosters.
Sarah Tew/CNET
As COVID-19 instances within the US spike as a result of omicron variant, well being officers, together with White Home chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, are shifting away from the phrase “totally vaccinated” to explain the standing of protected people. On Jan. 5, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention changed the time period “totally vaccinated” for max vaccine safety with the extra normal descriptor “updated.”
“We’re utilizing the terminology ‘maintaining your vaccinations updated’ quite than … ‘totally vaccinated,'” Fauci stated at a Nationwide Institutes of Well being presentation. “Proper now, optimum safety is with a 3rd shot of an mRNA or a second shot of a J&J.” The mRNA vaccines are Moderna and Pfizer.
Mounting proof reveals COVID vaccine safety decreases over time and that booster pictures are wanted to “high up” COVID-19-fighting antibodies, particularly in opposition to omicron. The US Meals and Drug Administration expanded the authorization of boosters to incorporate everybody 12 and older at the least 5 months after receiving a second dose of the mRNA vaccines, or two months after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Breakthrough instances of COVID-19 in individuals who’ve accomplished their preliminary vaccinations have risen notably with omicron. On Thursday, Oregon’s Division of Well being introduced that breakthrough infections accounted for 23.6% of recent COVID-19 instances for the week ending Jan. 8.
Many faculties, companies, and international locations are requiring booster pictures. The Verge reported Friday that Apple now requires all retailer and company staff to be boosted.
On Thursday, Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi introduced booster shot necessities for all public college college students 12 and older in addition to all residents working in tourism or leisure, based on AP. Spain additionally not too long ago declared that all guests to the nation have to be boosted if it has been 270 days since preliminary vaccination.
Final fall, Connecticut’s Wesleyan College grew to become the first faculty to make boosters necessary for college students. Many different faculties adopted swimsuit, together with all the Ivy League colleges. Extra faculties and universities are saying booster necessities on daily basis — the web site College Enterprise at present lists 326 faculties that require booster pictures for college students and workers.
The CDC web site nonetheless states that adults are “totally vaccinated” two weeks after a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or a single dose of the J&J/Janssen vaccine.
“People are thought-about totally vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 in the event that they’ve obtained their main sequence,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated on the Jan. 5 White Home COVID briefing. “That definition shouldn’t be altering … however we are actually recommending people keep updated with further doses they’re eligible for.”
For extra, here is the most recent on the Moderna booster pictures, what you want to know in regards to the Pfizer antiviral capsule and tips on how to decide between the vaccine boosters. The article continues under.
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Can you get COVID if you are fully vaccinated or receive a booster?
The highly contagious omicron variant is currently the dominant COVID-19 strain in the US, representing nearly 60% of new infections. As such, COVID-19 cases have rocketed to all-time highs, according to the CDC, which reported a seven-day moving average of 794,587 new cases on Jan. 13 –that’s a 653% increase from Dec. 15, when the rolling average was 121,699 new daily cases.
While two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine (or one of J&J) combined with a booster doesn’t provide complete protection from COVID-19, the vaccines offer a sturdy defense against illness.
In a Jan. 11 Senate hearing, Fauci said that an unvaccinated person is 10 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19, 17 times more likely to be hospitalized and 20 times more likely to die from COVID.
How many COVID vaccine doses do you need to be considered ‘fully vaccinated’?
According to the CDC‘s previous messaging, you’re fully vaccinated two weeks after you receive the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or two weeks after a single dose of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.
The CDC also considers you fully vaccinated if you received any single-dose vaccine listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization or any combination of the two-dose vaccines approved by the FDA or listed by the WHO for emergency use.
Though the official definition of “fully vaccinated” isn’t likely to change, Fauci has said three shots should be considered the new baseline — part of the primary series of vaccinations rather than a “booster.”
“It should be a proper one from the get-go — three shots,” he said in September.
Israel’s national coronavirus czar, Dr. Salman Zarka, told his country it should prepare for a fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine. Fauci has said that the need for a fourth jab is “conceivable” in the US, too, but not just yet.
“In the future, we might need an additional shot, but right now, we are hoping that we will get a greater degree of durability of protection from that booster shot,” Fauci said at a White House briefing Dec. 29. “We’re going to take one step at a time, get the data from the third boost and then make decisions based on scientific data.”
Why would the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ change from two doses of the mRNA vaccines to three?
As preliminary studies show omicron’s ability to infect those who are considered fully vaccinated, the definition began shifting — if not formally, then practically — from two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to three.
“As far as I’m concerned — I make it very clear — if you want to be optimally protected, get boosted,” Fauci said on CNN’s State of the Union, when asked if three shots will become the standard.
“It’s increasingly clear that if you have three shots, you’re in pretty good shape,” Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the University of California at San Francisco’s department of medicine, said last month during an online COVID-19 discussion. “I think we will stop calling people with two shots ‘fully vaccinated’ within a week or two,” Wachter added. “Omicron is going to make that case quite vividly.”
How many shots to be protected from omicron?
Sarah Tew/CNET
Will three vaccine doses become standard? Four?
With the CDC’s change of terminology, three doses has become the de facto new standard. “Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the omicron strain, it’s clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine,” Pfizer Chairman Albert Bourla said in a statement on early results about the Pfizer vaccine’s continued effectiveness.
Will there be a fourth shot? Israel has already started rolling out a fourth vaccine shot for medical workers, people of 60 years or older and people who are immunocompromised. The country recently began a study on the effectiveness of a second booster, testing 154 healthcare workers at the Sheba Medical Center. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that a fourth vaccine dose seems as safe as the third dose and increases vaccine protection fivefold.
At last week’s National Institutes of Health presentation, Fauci stressed the importance of first collecting and analyzing data from the third shot before considering a fourth dose: “I would say that we need to find out what the durability of protection of the third shot is before we starting thinking about the fourth shot.”
For more, here’s what we know about the omicron variant and how the new mutation compares with delta. And here’s how to store your vaccine card on your phone.
Will we need an omicron-specific booster to guard against the virus?
If two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are not enough to guard against omicron, would we need a variant-specific booster to restore protection? According to Fauci, “At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster.”
But getting people to upgrade from two doses to three will take additional effort: The CDC website says almost 209 million Americans right now are “fully vaccinated” with the Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. That’s 62.9% percent of the total US population. However, only 79 million in the US have received a booster — 37.8% of the so-called fully vaccinated, or about 24% of the total US population.
Moderna has said it is studying an omicron-specific vaccine, as well as a multivalent shot that could protect against the alpha and delta strains, but clinical trials aren’t expected to start until next year.
When can I get a booster shot?
The CDC says you can “ensure you are optimally protected against COVID-19” by getting vaccinated and getting a booster. If you got one of the mRNA vaccines from Moderna or Pfizer, the CDC says you should get a booster at least five months after your second dose. If you got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, see the next section.
The Moderna vaccine, Spikevax, has been authorized only for adults 18 and up. The FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine for people 16 and up, and given emergency authorization for children 5 to 15 years old.
On Jan. 5, the CDC expanded its recommendation on booster shots to include teens ages 12 to 17. In the CDC press release, Walensky said, “It is critical that we protect our children and teens from COVID-19 infection and the complications of severe disease. … This booster dose will provide optimized protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. I encourage all parents to keep their children up to date with CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.”
What about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?
The CDC website indicates “optimal” protection after receiving a second shot of the one-dose J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at least two months after the first.
Last year, the agency recommended Moderna or Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines
over Johnson & Johnson”s viral-vector shot, citing a rare but dangerous blood-clot side effect. But a booster of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine provides strong protection against the omicron variant of COVID-19 — stronger, even, than Pfizer’s jab — according to new research.
A Dec. 30 study of 69,000 South African health care workers found that, among individuals who already received one dose of the J&J vaccine, a booster given six to nine months later improved their odds against hospitalization from 63% to 85%.
A separate study by Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found a J&J booster given to individuals who were initially given two doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine generated a 41-fold increase in antibody response within a month, compared with only a 17-fold increase when given a booster of the Pfizer vaccine.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
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