Biden administration will start offering booster shots to all Americans on Sept. 20
Source: Washington Post
The Biden administration will begin offering coronavirus booster shots to all Americans on Sept. 20, top health officials announced Wednesday after concluding a third shot is needed to fight off waning immunity.
In a joint statement from top public health and medical experts, the administration confirmed they are developing plans to begin offering the booster shots after reviewing a wide array of data. The plan, which applies only to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, calls for all Americans to get a booster shot eight months after an individual’s second dose. The officials said they expect a booster shot will be needed for people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but they are still reviewing data and will announce plans at a later date.
“The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time following the initial doses of vaccination, 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 statement says.It continues: “For that reason, we conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability.”
The statement is signed by eight health officials, including Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Vivek H. Murthy, the surgeon general, and Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/18/covid-delta-variant-live-updates/#link-XD3L2L2TM5DTJMTHIIU3YKZ7PA
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I think they were looking at the 8-months after the 2nd dose, which for me would be some time in December.
thanks for the good laugh in the early morning @irish_dem @Bum. 
I.e., it says "will start offering". But the key in the headline is "eligible" because ONLY people who have moderate to severely compromised immune systems are eligible immediately (right now, before that date).
On or after September 20, they are projecting that "everyone else" will be eligible, but the timing of when they actually get the 3rd dose will depend on when their 2nd dose was - and the 3rd will be 8 months later.
So anyone who got their 2nd shots from ~mid-January (if they were the earliest for a 1st in late December), then those people will be able to get a shot literally that day the "offer" opens up, and then it continues from then.
They also brought up Janssen (J&J)'s and mentioned that since it didn't become available for use until March, they still had a little time to come up with a strategy for them because the earliest J&J's were March (vs the earliest Pfizers in December), which would put the 6 month mark in September and 8 month mark in November, assuming they will go ahead with some kind of booster for that group.
When it comes to "headlines", I'm just glad that it actually fit DU's LBN headline field!
maybe I will get 6 G on my phone now
Last edited Thu Aug 19, 2021, 10:11 AM - Edit history (1)
I received my booster shot tonight! I stopped in a Walmart to ask if they had heard when they will begin to administer boosters. The pharmacist said next month unless I had a qualifying condition. I replied "I think that's me," as I take an immuno-suppressant drug. He asked me what I take and I told him. He said "Yep, you qualify, do want it now?" Do I want it now??!! Hell, yeah!
Turns out I was the very first booster shot that he gave! He wanted me to be sure to check back with him to let him know if I had any reactions. So far, so good, but it was only a couple of hours ago. 
I hope you don't have a bad reaction. Welcome to DU.
Did you get the Pfizer? I got the Moderna, but most people I know got the Pfizer. And welcome to DU, hope you're still feeling fine. 
And the Committee unanimously voted to approve their offiicial statement for recommendation for the Pfizer vaccine for individuals 16 and older. They also started discussing the "booster" (in quotes because some think using the term "booster" for a 3rd vaccine shot is misleading) framework.
I posted this in another thread - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2793245
(I have it on a little convertible laptop that I have used to stream them in the past and when they were done, I would just stop the stream and just minimize that browser window... And interestingly, when they have their next meeting, the new stream suddenly auto-starts the stream in that browser window, so out of nowhere I'll suddenly start hearing people talking while the laptop is on the lockscreen and am like WTF?
)
Anyway - the have a biggy going on right now that started at 10 am EDT (must be at least 50 people on it, including liason reps from HHS OPDIVs, the Vaccine-related Committee members, a pile of independent hospital/medical organization reps, a bunch of medical/pharmaceutical industry reps - all on this telecon) - https://www.ustream.tv/channel/VWBXKBR8af4
The agenda is to look at the data pre-post Pfizer full approval and apparently discuss the boosters.
One of the working group slide decks they presented at the beginning of the meeting included this slide (relevant to the OP) -
I think that slide says it all regarding the vaccines. It's not saying the people who are vaccinated aren't contracting it nor does it say that some are not being hospitalized, but it is stark about who IS being hospitalized to a very high degree.
The axis is X = time (since availability of the vaccine) and Y = rate of hospitalizations per 100,000.
That slide was (taken as a snapshot) from here - https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/slides-2021-08-30/01-COVID-Daley-508.pdf (PDF)
Link to all the slide decks that will be presented today - https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/slides-2021-08-30.html