COVID-19 Vaccine Booster is not approved.Some san diegans are getting them anyway

Anita Emde jumped at the chance to get both Pfizer vaccines in April. And now, another COVID-19 surge is in full swing, and 64-year-old Scripps Ranch residents are looking for booster shots.

“I hope they accelerate the whole process,” she said. “I will get it with a heartbeat.”

Some of them already have.

One of the residents of North County received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in late March and the Pfizer vaccine in July with Rite Aid. He has undergone cardiotomy and is diabetic, both susceptible to COVID-19, and are concerned about reports that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may not provide strong protection against delta mutants. I embraced. So he asked his doctor if he should get a booster.

“He didn’t tell me to go ahead and do it, but he didn’t tell me not to do that,” said a resident who demanded that he remain anonymous. “He said later that if we had the option at the time, we would probably have recommended getting Pfizer or (Moderna).”

County spokesman Sarah Sweeney confirmed that the region’s immune registries contained entries for residents who were believed to have received additional doses, but it is unknown how many San Diegans gained boosters. Sweeney did not provide the exact number, he added, adding that the county is still deciding whether one of these cases is a data entry error.

in the meantime France and Germany There are plans to provide boosters to the elderly, and Israel has begun to do so. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have said that fully vaccinated people do not require additional injections.

This is also San Diego County’s view, stating that many vaccine providers in the region do not offer boosters such as Sharp HealthCare, Scripps Health, Kaiser Permanente, San Diego Family Health Centers, Albertsons and Ralph pharmacies. increase. As a result, some people were clearly able to slip through, but other booster seekers were turned down after the provider checked the vaccination record.

However, researchers say the increasing chorus is useful for delta variants where booster shots spread rapidly. Shane Crotty of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology is one of them.he I believe it’s time Public health officials recommend that people who have been vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson be vaccinated with the Modana or Pfizer vaccine.

His main concern is that the delta mutant grows faster than other strains. This gives the immune system less time to fight the virus. One way to do this quickly is to already have a large salvo of antibodies. The Y-shaped protein grabs the virus and blocks infection when it adheres sufficiently tightly. The right place.

At least one study Antibodies made in response to the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine are not very effective at blocking delta mutants from infecting laboratory cells, according to scientists at New York University. Is suggested. By comparison, British studies It has been shown that giving people astraZeneca vaccine followed by Pfizer shots was safe and caused a stronger antibody response than the two AstraZeneca shots.

Both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines use a harmless virus to slide a fragment of the genetic material inside the cell and teach the immune system to respond to the coronavirus. No studies have directly investigated the benefits of combining a Johnson & Johnson vaccine with another vaccine, but Crotti says he has no time to waste.

“The delta wave is growing so fast that we basically have to decide whether to decide now or not,” he said. “If we made a decision three months from now, Delta would have already swept the country. It’s a bit controversial.”

San Francisco public health officials announced on Tuesday that anyone vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson would be allowed to be vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna, but San Diego did not comply. According to state and local data, approximately 150,000 inhabitants are vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson, accounting for 6.5 percent of the vaccinated people in the region.

Dr. Wilma Uten, the county’s public health officer, is one of them.

“I’m not considering getting a booster if I get the J & J vaccine because there’s no evidence yet,” Uten said in an email and official recommendations from the FDA and CDC. He added that he would wait.

The one-shot vaccine was provided to all San Diegans, but the county has made special efforts to provide the vaccine to groups that are unlikely to return to the second dose, such as farm workers and homeless people. did. For example, on the Joe’s Village East Village campus, some people were vaccinated with the Modana vaccine before the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was available, but immunized about 260 homeless people. According to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jeffrey Norris, another 150 were vaccinated while they were in line for lunch, while others were vaccinated at the Golden Hall shelter.

Joseph Stramond, a bioethicist at San Diego State University, said that there is good evidence for these groups to have access to vaccine boosters, both new data on delta variants and long-standing health inequalities. Is quoted.

“Being an migrant worker or not being detained is generally at increased risk of the virus, as it is likely to have other types of comorbidities that make (COVID-19) more dangerous. “I will.” “I think that’s an additional reason to prioritize them as boosters.”

Despite growing interest in boosters, researchers emphasize that all vaccines still do a good job of preventing serious illness.Results of South African research Announced on friday The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been shown to remain approximately 71% effective against hospitalizations caused by the Delta variant.

According to the report, more than 99% of Californians currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated. Kaiser Family Foundation.. And infections among fully immunized people remain relatively rare in the state, compared to 7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last week of July, while unvaccinated. 33 cases per 100,000 Californians.

“Yes, we have a breakthrough infection, but the vaccine is really reducing its severity,” said Sujan Shrestha of the Lahora Institute for Immunology. “As a scientist, I didn’t think it was perfect.”

Researchers have always known that immunity to the new coronavirus does not last forever. There are four other coronaviruses that can cause the common cold, and many studies have shown that immunity to these viruses usually lasts about a year. Both Moderna and Pfizer CEOs expect to need regular vaccine boosters, as well as seasonal flu vaccinations, but both companies have said they will need at least six months after the second vaccination. Reports providing strong vaccinations.

The third dose of these vaccines counts as a booster, similar to what the two companies are working on — shots designed to stimulate immunity to specific viral variants.And while the company still knows how much vaccine to pack in the booster, Pfizer Recently reported A third dose of the existing vaccine at the current dose promoted the antibody response, including for the delta mutant.

Shrestha agrees that a booster will be needed, but she doesn’t think we’re perfect at that point. But there is one group she thinks she is already benefiting from them. It is people who are susceptible to COVID-19 due to their age and underlying health.

These people 2% to 3% Adults in the United States are much less likely to show a strong vaccine response, study The University of Pittsburgh shows that only 20 percent of immunized lung transplant recipients produced detectable levels of antibodies against the coronavirus.

Federal officials have signaled that the United States plans to wipe out immunosuppressed people to receive additional vaccines within days or weeks. But on Wednesday, World Health Organization director Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyes will not administer boosters until after the end of September to give wealthy countries the opportunity to vaccinate low-income countries with a larger population. I begged.

The global imbalance in vaccine deployment is serious. A good example: Almost half of Americans are fully vaccinated. 2 percent of africans.. This has created an opportunity for new viral variants to emerge in low-income countries and areas with low vaccination coverage, and to spread globally. The Delta variant, first discovered in India, is a perfect example.

However, according to Stramondo, the bigger policy issue of vaccine distribution is beyond the control of the average person, making it unethical to get booster shots, if available. there is no.

“The choice is not whether someone gets a booster shot or the shot goes to another country. Someone chooses whether to get a booster shot or the shot is thrown,” he says. I did. “When asking about trade-offs, you need to think realistically about what the trade-offs really are.”

There is broad consensus on one point: reaching unvaccinated remains the key to ending the pandemic. Locally, this includes 500,000 San Diegans currently covered by the COVID-19 vaccine.

“That’s what the world needs,” Shrestha said. “And that’s what this country needs.”