Study says booster vaccine prevents severe cases 1:30
(CNN) --
The rate of people getting a booster dose of COVID-19 in the United States has dropped to its lowest level in history, and many public health experts are concerned.
As of Monday, about 64% of the US population was fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with at least their initial two-dose schedule, and 28% had received a booster dose.
However, the pace of booster doses is the lowest in months, since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first recommended booster doses. booster dose for seniors and other at-risk adults in September, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data.
The agency expanded its booster dose recommendation in November to include all adults.
People who received Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine as their first dose appear to be less likely to receive the booster than other vaccinated groups.
Among people eligible for a booster dose, less than a third of those who initially received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have received it, compared with about half of those who completed their initial two-day vaccination schedule. dose of Moderna, with 52%, or Pfizer, with 47%, according to the CNN analysis.
Among people who are vaccinated but haven't had a booster dose, about 4 in 10, or 39%, say they want to get a booster dose as soon as they can, but another 4 in 10 say they definitely don't they will give themselves a booster dose, or that they will do so only if necessary, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released last month.
The survey found that intent to get vaccinated is divided along party lines, with 58% of Democrats who are vaccinated but haven't had a booster dose saying they want to get a booster dose as soon as they can, compared with only 18% of Republicans not having been vaccinated.
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What an expert says
The survey was conducted among a nationally representative sample of about 1,500 adults between January 11 and 23, during a period when the omicron variant of the coronavirus was predominant and when the United States had a record increase in cases and hospitalizations.
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"I think people are tired of Covid -- even if you've gotten vaccinated and you haven't really gotten sick, people feel protected," Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told CNN.
Benjamin said he's not surprised at how slowly booster doses of the coronavirus vaccine are being given, as there's a long history of delaying the adoption of other vaccines and recommended drugs when it comes to public health in the United States. United.
"It doesn't surprise me when you think about the fact that when you start a new vaccination program, there's always been very, very slow uptake," Benjamin said.
"The number of people who have been fully vaccinated, the more than 200 million who have already been vaccinated, is an extraordinary number. So we should recognize that it is remarkable. Now, we should also say that, in light of the seriousness of the problem, we haven't done enough.
Study says booster vaccine prevents severe cases 1:30
"It seems that people consider it something extra"
The slow uptake of coronavirus vaccine booster doses has been "a bit of a mystery" to Andy Pekosz, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, especially as boosters appear to improve protection against emerging variants. as the omicron variant.
"When omicron came along, it became very clear that a booster was a tremendous help in terms of keeping people out of the hospital, and you would think that the people who completed their initial vaccination schedule would be the ones who would be more than willing to line up to a third one that would give them much better immunity," Pekosz told CNN.
"It seems like people think of it as something extra or something optional, as opposed to really being almost critical when it comes to omicron infections," he said.
The majority of adults who are vaccinated but not boosted, 60%, say that news of the spread of omicron has not made much of a difference in deciding whether to get vaccinated.
However, around 3 in 10, or 29%, say the spread of omicron has made them more likely to get a booster shot, according to the KFF survey released last month.
The boosters will be critical as the country works to boost Covid-19 immunity in communities, Pekosz said, an effort that could help the coronavirus become an endemic disease instead of causing pandemic levels of infection.
Endemic means that a disease has a constant presence in a population but does not affect an alarming number of people, as is often the case in a pandemic.
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Will it end forever?
"Booster is the easy way to get strong immunity now, and so we would like to see more people taking that easy way to get strong immunity. I would like to see a much higher boost rate," Pekosz said.
He added that it remains unclear how close the United States is to the level of protection needed to end the pandemic, because it is difficult to track immunity caused by natural infections.
Overall, the protection against Covid-19 provided by three doses of the vaccine, compared to just two, is evident to Dr. Saju Mathew, an Atlanta primary care physician who has been treating patients throughout the pandemic. .
"I can safely say that there is a difference between my vaccinated patients and those who get a booster if they get a post-vaccination infection. So if they get sick and are vaccinated, most of my patients who are boosted are much better off at home," Mathew told CNN.
"It's like clockwork. When I see them, I ask them, 'Are you braced? If they say they don't have the brace, I can already predict they're going to tell me their symptoms are much worse,'" Mathew said.
"But if they do, most patients are fine and stay out of the hospital because, I contend, they have the booster."
Analyzing the metrics
Even if the majority of a community is fully vaccinated with two doses, that would not offer as much protection as if the majority were boosted with three doses, Mathew said, adding that he is very concerned about how few people are boosted in the United States right now.
So when more states look at their vaccination rates and decide to withdraw mask mandates and other COVID-19 mitigation measures, Mathew said they should consider how much of their population is hardened against COVID-19.
"If I were governor, I think that would make a big difference," he said.
"The metrics would be more precise."
Many states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island, have lifted or made plans to lift indoor or school mask mandates based on in declining covid-19 case counts, declining hospitalizations, and rising vaccination rates.
"Hospitalizations and intensive care admissions are key metrics, in addition to vaccination rates. But let's remember that 61% are fully vaccinated in the US, but only 25% are boosted," Mathew said.
"If it's not boosted, the vaccine only works 57%, versus 90% if it's boosted."
Booster doses of coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are safe and offer high levels of protection against severe Covid-19, though that protection may wane over time, according to two studies released by the CDC on Friday.
The effectiveness of the booster vaccine against covid-19 decreases after four months, according to studies
Evidence that protection is diminished "reinforces the importance of continuing to consider additional doses to maintain or enhance protection" against COVID-19-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits, says one of the studies.
That study suggests that, with the dominant omicron variant in the United States, the efficacy of the vaccine was 87% against visits to the emergency room or to the covid-19 department and 91% against hospitalizations in the two months following a third. dose.
Protection fell to 66% and 78%, respectively, by the fourth month, according to the data.
But by comparison, after just two doses of the coronavirus vaccine, when the omicron variant was predominant, vaccine efficacy against hospitalizations fell from 71% in the two months after vaccination to 54% in next five months, according to the study.
The data is still early, but the studies offer more evidence that coronavirus vaccine booster doses can significantly increase protection against Covid-19 in the short term and that protection appears to wane over time, Benjamin said. of the American Public Health Association.
Benjamin added that he would like to see more specific data on the effectiveness of booster doses of the vaccine in older adults, people with chronic diseases and people who are immunocompromised, compared to younger people or healthy adults.
"Only time will tell exactly how long the vaccine lasts in different populations, depending on age and degree of underlying disease," Benjamin said.
"But the fact that, at least so far, it's still protecting people from getting seriously ill and dying tells me it's still very effective."
-- CNN's Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
booster dose