Biden encourages COVID-19 booster shots for those who are currently qualified

President Joe Biden Additional protection on Friday, the day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved additional doses of millions of elderly or other vulnerable Americans to those eligible for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine booster Prompted to get.

Currently open to the public health Authorities need to resolve the confusion about who should get boosters and why — as they still manage unvaccinated vaccinations, which make up the majority of coronavirus cases in the country. is.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky boosted late Thursday to nursing home residents aged 65 and over and people over the age of 50 with chronic health problems such as diabetes, six months after the last dose of Pfizer. Said it was necessary to provide.

And a wide range of other adults can decide for themselves whether they need a booster once they reach that 6-month mark: young people with underlying health problems-and health care workers. People at high risk of infection due to work such as, or their living conditions such as prisons and homeless shelters.

Warrensky dismissed an objection from her own advisory board in adding the final category, but the decision was to avoid even mild infections so that they could come to work. Gathered praise from the health organizations that need it.

“Including booster shots to keep front-line healthcare workers safe and secure access to care, as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge in hospitals across the country and labor shortages are significant. We need to consider all the available tools, “says American. Rick Pollack, CEO of the Hospital Association.

CDC data vaccination Those used in the United States are still strongly protected from serious illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19, but immunity to mild infections appears to be weakened months after firing. ..

“You’re in good shape and doing everything you can to keep the booster in place,” Biden praised the decision on Friday. He said he would get his booster soon and aimed to get rid of his anxiety about another vaccination.

“It’s hard to admit I’m over 65, but I get a booster shot. It’s a bear, right?”

With this approval, many Americans quickly began looking for their own boosters.

Jempek, 52, from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, first got a booster on Friday morning. She qualified as a math and science consultant at a local school in Wisconsin and received her last dose of Pfizer in March.

“It’s a little scary,” she said of the job of many students and teachers not wearing masks and young children traveling through unvaccinated school sections.

“I don’t want to be COVID Mary carrying it to a building full of unvaccinated children because I move from building to building. Carrying it from one building to another, I’m with myself I couldn’t live. It bothers me, that idea, “said Peck.

Warensky of the CDC said getting the first unvaccinated shot was a top priority. But her adviser on Thursday worked on whether the booster debate distracted from that goal, especially if the shot was opened to a wide range of Americans who were finally settled by Warensky.

Only about 182 million Americans are fully vaccinated, accounting for only 55% of the population.

CDC directors rarely dismiss panel recommendations. Experts said it happened only once in this century.

Still coming: Government decision on whether to allow booster vaccinations made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

The UK and Israel have already given a third round shot against strong opposition from the World Health Organization that poor countries are not sufficient for the initial dose.

The United States has already approved a third dose of the Pfizer and Modana vaccines for certain people with weakened immunity, such as cancer patients and transplant recipients. Other Americans could get boosters by simply asking, whether healthy or not.

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Associated Press writers Jonathan Remia in New York, Zeke Miller in Washington, and Todd Richmond in Madison, Wisconsin contributed to the report.

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The Associated Press’s Department of Health Sciences is supported by the Department of Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content.