COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to begin in US in September

COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will be made widely available to Americans starting on Sept. 20, US health officials said, citing data showing diminishing protection from the initial vaccinations as infections rise from the Delta variant.

US officials will offer a third shot to Americans who received their initial inoculation of two-dose COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna Inc and by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech AG at least eight months earlier, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2021/08/18/joint-statement-hhs-public-health-and-medical-experts-covid-19-booster-shots.html.

“It’s the best way to protect ourselves from new variants that may arise,” US President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House. “It will make you safer and for longer. It will help end this pandemic faster.”

The US government expects to give out 100 million booster shots for free at around 80,000 locations nationwide, Biden said.

Initial booster doses will be given to Americans who received two-dose vaccines, but officials said they anticipate that people given Johnson & Johnson’s shot, authorized in the United States in February, will also need boosters.

“You want to get out ahead of the virus,” Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, told reporters.

“If you wait for something bad to happen before you respond to it, you find you’re considerably behind your real full capability of being responsive.”

The booster shots, officials said, initially will focus on healthcare workers, nursing home residents and older people – among the first groups to be vaccinated in late 2020 and early 2021.

The news drew support from both US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said he “absolutely” planned to get a third shot.

Shares of Pfizer rose around 1.65% in midday trading. Moderna shares dropped around 2.8% and J&J fell 0.5%.