The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is allowing anyone 65 and older to seek another Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 bivalent booster if it's been four months since their last booster. Most people with weakened immune systems can choose to get another shot at least two months later. The moves come as the federal public health emergency concerning COVID-19 is ending May 11.
WAMC’s Jim Levulis spoke with Dr. Rosha McCoy of the Association of American Medical Colleges about this next stage of addressing COVID.
McCoy: I think throughout the pandemic, we've seen that people who are older and have immunocompromising conditions are at highest risk, first of all, from the coronavirus. And we also know that some people, as people get older and people with the immunocompromising conditions, their immune systems just don't fight off the infection as well. So you know, considering the highest risk population, if it's been more than four months since they got the bivalent vaccine, the recommendation is to go ahead and get another one, because they do you see that some immunity seems to decrease over time. And because of the high-risk potential for hospitalization and severe disease in that group of folks.
Levulis: Is the thinking then that the federal government will recommend everyone get a second bivalent booster shot later this year?
McCoy: We don't really know. We don't know when the second one for everyone will be recommended. You know, there's thinking as you've probably heard, similar that it may be similar to the flu vaccine. That'll go to a yearly vaccine. But those recommendations have not been made yet. So hard to know whether it'll be a recommendation for everyone. But at some point, I think there will be a recommendation for another booster.
Levulis: And if that path to an annual shot is followed, you mentioned the flu shot there, essentially, would it be the same approach as to targeting the strain that is most prevalent, spreading the most each year?
McCoy: I think that is our thinking at this point. You know, that makes the most sense. As we do with the influenza vaccine, we target certain strains like you said, so I think that is the most likely scenario that we’ll see. And it appears that these mRNA vaccines can be reformulated to target particular strains. So hopefully, that would probably be the approach.
Levulis: Now the CDC notes that less than a quarter of people who received a primary COVID-19 vaccine series have gotten a booster. And of course, it’s been announced that the federal public health emergency is set to end on May 11. With that in mind, do you think it’s fair to say that an even smaller percentage would likely get that second booster, especially now understanding that it’s just people 65 and over or immunocompromised?
McCoy: Well first of all, we need to get those who are eligible to get the first booster. So as you said, a very small proportion of folks have gotten that first booster. So it is really important for everyone to get that bivalent booster, which targets the multiple strains, the current strains that we think of variants that are circulating. I'm hoping people will also consider the second booster. I mean, we did get good response from older Americans and certainly folks who have immunocompromised conditions because they are more concerned. So even with the primary series, we know more older Americans got the primary series. So we hope that people will get the second booster of those who are eligible. You know, we're just very fortunate to be able to prevent disease. So hopefully, people will hear that and consider protecting themselves.
Levulis: When it comes to the youngest population, just 6% of two- to four-year-olds have gotten their initial COVID shots and that figure is 4.5 percent for those younger than two. Far fewer then got an updated booster then obviously. You're a trained pediatrician, what are those figures say to you?
McCoy: Yeah, I mean, I'm hoping that over time as this becomes less politicized and more routine, people will recognize how important it is to protect kids. You know, it is true kids tend to not get very serious illness. But we just don't know who the kids are unnecessarily who are going to get sicker. So I'm hoping over time that parents will recognize that, as we are seeing this is a safe vaccine, it's important to protect kids. And over time, we just don't know what the long-term effects of getting multiple COVID infections, even if they're asymptomatic is. So it's really important to protect kids. I'm hoping that over time, more parents will be open to getting their children immunized.
Levulis: We mentioned the ending of the federal public health emergency in May. Obviously this has been discussed as a pandemic, have we reached the endemic stage?
McCoy: You know, some people are calling it that. I mean, I think what we know is that coronavirus is still circulating throughout the world. The difference now is that we have tools to deal with it. Unlike the beginning. We have vaccines. We have you know therapeutics, treatments, and we have tests. So we're better prepared to deal with it. So, that's what I think is mainly different. We have, obviously because of vaccines and somewhat because of infection, we have many more folks who have some immunity. So those are all things that are different. So I don't know whether we call it a pandemic or an endemic, that's a little bit controversial. It's in the community. We need to make sure we use the tools we have to protect ourselves.
