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NEW YORK – Older Americans should roll up their sleeves to get another COVID-19 vaccine, even if they received a booster dose in the fall, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans 65 and older should get another dose of the updated vaccine that became available in September if it has been at least four months since their last shot. In making the recommendation, the agency endorsed guidance proposed by an expert advisory panel earlier in the day.
“The majority of COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations last year occurred among people age 65 and older. An additional dose of vaccine may provide additional protection… for those most at risk,” said CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen, in a statement.
The advisory panel’s decision came after a lengthy discussion about whether to say seniors “can” get vaccinated or whether they “should” do so. This reflects a debate among experts about how necessary another booster shot is and whether yet another recommendation would add to the public’s growing vaccine fatigue.
Some doctors say most older adults are adequately protected by the anti-fall vaccine, which is based on immunity derived from previous vaccines and exposure to the virus itself. So far, preliminary studies have not shown a substantial decrease in the vaccine’s effectiveness over six months.
However, the body’s defenses induced by vaccines tend to fade over time, and that happens faster in older people than in other adults. The committee had recommended COVID-19 booster doses for older adults in 2022 and 2023.
COVID-19 remains a danger, especially for older people and those with underlying medical conditions. There are still more than 20,000 hospitalizations and more than 2,000 deaths each week due to the coronavirus, according to the CDC. And people 65 and older have the highest rates of hospitalization and death.
Some members of the advisory panel said a “should” recommendation is intended to more clearly prompt doctors and pharmacists to offer the shots.
“Most people come in wanting to get vaccinated or not,” said Dr. Jamie Loehr, a committee member and family physician in Ithaca, New York. “I’m trying to make it easier for providers to say, ‘Yes, we recommend this.'”
In September, the government recommended a new COVID-19 injection recipe created against a version of the coronavirus called XBB.1.5. That single-target vaccine replaced combination shots that had targeted both the original coronavirus strain and a much earlier omicron version.
The CDC recommended the new vaccines for everyone over 6 months old and allowed people with weakened immune systems to receive a second dose as soon as two months after the first.
Most Americans haven’t heard. According to the latest data from the CDC, 13% of American children have received the vaccine and about 22% of American adults have done so. The vaccination rate is highest for adults aged 65 and older, almost 42%.
“With each successive vaccine, acceptance has decreased,” said Dr. David Canaday, an infectious disease expert at Case Western Reserve University who studies COVID-19 in older people.
“People are tired of getting all these vaccines all the time,” said Canaday, who is not part of the committee. “We have to be careful not to over-recommend the vaccine.”
But there is a subset of Americans — those at highest risk of severe illness and death — who have been asking whether another dose is allowed, said Dr. William Schaffner, a vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University who is part of a task force. of the committee that has been debating the reinforcement question.
In fact, CDC survey data suggests the group’s biggest concern about the vaccine is whether it is effective enough.
Agency officials say that among those who received the latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine, 50% fewer will get sick after coming into contact with the virus compared to those who did not receive the fall vaccine.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group.