White House COVID-19 Response Team Unveils Plans For Booster Shots Program
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The White House COVID-19 Response Team and public health officials held a briefing Wednesday to unveil plans for a new program to make COVID-19 booster shots available to fully-vaccinated Americans.
"The time to lay out a plan for COVID-19 boosters is now," said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.
Dr. Murthy said fully-vaccinated adults 18 years old and older "would be eligible for their booster shot eight months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines."
"So if you got your second shot on February 1st, you can get a booster, starting on October 1st. If you got your second shot on March 12th, you can get your booster starting on November 12th, and so on," explained White House COVID Response Team Coordinator Jeffrey Zients.
During the COVID-19 response briefing, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky explained the decision to recommend booster shots to fully-vaccinated adults.
"As we make decisions about boosters though, we also have to look at vaccine effectiveness in the specific context of the Delta variant," she said. "Preliminary data through August 6th from two of our vaccine effectiveness cohort studies that include more than 4,000 healthcare personnel, first responders, and other frontline workers, in eight locations across the country, show waning effectiveness again symptomatic and asymptomatic infection in the context of the Delta variant, from 92% prior to Delta to 64% with Delta."
Zients said the booster doses, which could begin the week of September 20, would be available at "roughly 80,000 places across the country, including over 40,000 local pharmacies."
Dr. Murthy added that booster shots would be delivered directly to residents of long-term care facilities.