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COVID Boosters for Pfizer, Moderna Vaccines to Start Sept. 20

August 18, 2021

COVID-19 booster shots will be available to all American adults starting Sept. 20, federal health officials said Wednesday, after new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed a concerning drop in efficacy over time.

The plan, outlined by the CDC and other top public health officials, calls for a booster shot eight months after receiving the second dose of either a Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccination. A booster is also expected for recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but not before the Food and Drug Administration completes a review of data.

The reduced protection against infection by initial vaccine doses and the dominance of the highly transmissible Delta variant resolved a monthslong debate over when, or if, to administer boosters to the general public. People with compromised immune systems became eligible last week for a third dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.

“We’re fully prepared,” said Dr. James Cardon, Hartford HealthCare’s Chief Clinical Integration Officer, at an afternoon media briefing. “We have plenty of vaccines. Right now, we have plenty of access. Moving forward, we are in the planning stages to really be able to handle the kind of volumes we did with the first go-round of vaccines.”

Anyone 18 years old and up, fully vaccinated with a two-dose vaccine, will be eligible for the booster shot. The initial doses were mostly administered at large-scale vaccine clinics. That should change. Dr. Cardon said many primary care physicians should be able to provide vaccinations right in their offices.

The booster has not been reformulated for the Delta variant.

“It’s the same exact vaccine,” said Keith Grant, APRN, Hartford HealthCare’s Senior Director of Infection Prevention. “It’s the same shot.”

The CDC said people can expect side effects similar to the first two doses, with fatigue, injection site pain, headache, chills and fever among common symptoms.

With the state’s positivity rate at 4.25 percent, the highest of the summer, Fairfield County became the fifth county considered an area high transmission by the CDC, defined as 100 or more cases per 100,000 people or a positivity rate of 10 percent or higher in the past seven day. Fairfield, with 103.46 cases per 100,000 in the seven-day period ending Aug. 16, joined New Haven, Hartford, New London and Middlesex counties in the high-transmission category.

Litchfield, Tolland and Windham counties remain in the substantial-transmission category, defined as 50 to 100 cases per 100,000 or a positivity rate between 8 and 10 percent in the past seven days.

 

 

Grant said Hartford HealthCare has 80 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, with 46 percent (37 patients) over age 65. Of the 24 breakthrough cases, he said 80 percent (19 patients) are over 65.

“Most of these patients are not in critical care,” he said. “So we’re in a very good position where (vaccine) efficacy is concerned.”