November 9, 2021 – Pfizer-BioNTech are expected to seek authorization for their COVID vaccine booster shot for those that are 18 and older. According to a report from The Washington Post, this move could prove to be an instrumental push to increase booster rates at a critical moment in the pandemic.
President Biden announced his plans to make boosters available to all adults during the month of September, but many scientists and public health experts pushed back on these plans, saying “there was little evidence that young, healthy people needed the extra shot, especially when much of the world remained unvaccinated.” Since Biden’s announcement, additional data has shown that vaccine protection does wane after several months.
Jeanne Marrazzo, an infectious-diseases physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham said, “In August, I thought it was extremely premature to offer boosters to everyone. The idea of rolling out boosters, while we were trying to increase our primary vaccination rates and dealing with the crushing delta wave, I felt was tone deaf.”
If the Pfizer-BioNTech booster can be given to anyone 18 and older, it could encourage those who have “eschewed boosters because they don’t fit into any specific category.” Currently, people are eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna boosters if they are 65 and older or at a higher risk of COVID-19. Booster shots are given six months after the second dose of the initial two-shot vaccine, and many health officials have encouraged people to “mix-and-match” their booster shots if they want to receive a different one for their booster.
With the holiday season upon us, there is greater value in a widely available booster vaccination to protect younger people from getting sick or spreading COVID to more susceptible age groups at any potential holiday gatherings.