All Americans are to be offered Covid-19 vaccine boosters eight months after they received their second dose of the shot.
Federal health officials are strongly considering whether extra shots for the vaccinated will be needed before the onset of winter.
The idea is being pushed in the wake of a fourth surge of virus cases due to the more transmissible Delta variant, which is spreading amongst both the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
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The Covid-19 booster will be seen as a third jab required to combat situations in which the virus could evade the two vaccines already offered to Americans to protect them from the virus. Plans are still at an infant stage, and although the idea is still being explored at the moment, there is believed to be an active plan t
U.S health experts are closely examining the situation in other countries such as Israel, where preliminary studies suggest the vaccine’s protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated in January. It follows the spread of the delta variant, claiming more lives in the U.S.
Israel has already began to offer a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who were already vaccinated more than five months ago in an effort to control its own surge in cases from the delta variant.
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Doses would only begin to be administered widely once the Food and Drug Administration formally approves the vaccines. Pfizer boosters could be approved in the coming weeks.
US health officials last week recommended boosters for some with weakened immune systems, citing their higher risk of catching the virus and evidence that the vaccines’ effectiveness waned over time.
The director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr Francis Collins, said on Sunday the U.S could decide in the next couple weeks whether to offer coronavirus booster shots to Americans this fall.
Health care workers, nursing home residents and other older Americans are among those to be first offered the extra boost once the shots received emergency use authorization last December.
Since then, more than 198 million Americans have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with more than 168 million fully vaccinated.
Israel, which exclusively administered the Pfizer shot, has been offering a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who were already vaccinated more than five months ago in an effort to control its own surge in cases from the delta variant.
Officials had said data still indicated that people remain highly protected from Covid-19, including the Delta variant, after receiving the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna regimen or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
But US health officials made clear on Sunday they are preparing for the possibility that the time for boosters may come sooner than later.
“There is a concern that the vaccine may start to wane in its effectiveness,” Collins said. “And Delta is a nasty one for us to try to deal with. The combination of those two means we may need boosters, maybe beginning first with health care providers, as well as people in nursing homes, and then gradually moving forward” with others, such as older Americans who were among the first to get vaccinations.
Demetra Ranson, a healthcare worker, comforts a patient in the Covid-19 ward at United Memorial medical center in Houston on 4 December.
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He said because the Delta variant only started hitting the US hard in July, the “next couple of weeks” of case data will help make a decision.
Officials were continuing to collect information as well about the J&J vaccine, which was only approved in the US in late February, to determine when to recommend boosters, one of the officials said.
The White House has said that even though the US has begun sharing more than 110 million vaccine doses with the world, the nation has enough domestic supply to deliver boosters to Americans should they be recommended by health officials.
Global health officials, including the World Health Organization, have called on wealthier and more-vaccinated countries to hold off on booster shots to ensure the supply of first doses for people in the developing world.
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