Israel, which launched an aggressive COVID-19 vaccination campaign over the winter, is now the first nation to begin giving booster shots, according to Haaretz. Residents over 60 are eligible for a third dose five months after their second. Israel’s immunocompromised had already been approved for a third shot earlier this month.
The Washington Post provides context:
The decision coincides with the release of a paper by executives from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. While its vaccine was shown to have only slightly diminished, though still strong, effectiveness six months after inoculation, the paper said, booster shots would soon be needed.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, said the goal was simple: “to preserve life and daily routine in the state of Israel.” In recent weeks, the country’s new infections have risen from the single digits to more than 2,000 a day.
Despite Pfizer’s warning, the medical community has not reached a consensus on the necessity of booster shots.
“There’s not enough evidence right now to support that that is somehow the best use of resources,” Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University in Atlanta, told The New York Times.
Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University, added that protection from the vaccines decreases over time, but only slightly. “Everything that’s engaged by the vaccine is able to fight off that spread that ultimately leads to severe disease,” Dr. Iwasaki told The Times. “That’s probably not declining at all.”
Asked about the possibility of booster shots during a CNN appearance, Dr. Anthony Fauci responded, “It’s a dynamic situation. It’s a work in progress, it evolves like in so many other areas of the pandemic. You’ve got to look at the data.”
Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, added that first in line for a booster would be “people who have suppressed immune systems, those who are transplant patients, cancer chemotherapy, autoimmune diseases, that are on immunosuppressant regimens.”
The highly transmissible delta variant has changed the calculation on booster shots.
“It’s easier for this Delta variant to overwhelm low antibody levels, and that’s why we were considering whether or not some people might need boosters,” Scott Gottlieb, the FDA’s former commissioner, told CBS Face the Nation.
