SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Several countries are expected to offer more COVID-19 boosters this spring, including Canada and in the United Kingdom, but no word yet on whether more boosters would be offered in the United States.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
It's possible that the CDC will change its recommendation from what it is currently – that people receive the bivalent booster, which became available last fall.
This was a one-time dose. But most recently the advisory committee met and advised both the FDA and the CDC to make this an annual booster.
For those who are at higher risk, in the event of a new surge of a new variant, a new vaccine should be ready in the spring, according to Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at the University of California, Berkeley on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" with Eric Thomas and Margie Shafer on Tuesday.
As for other countries, like the UK, those who are high-risk should get another booster in the spring regardless of the state of the virus.
"The UK is taking a different tack, at this point, than the CDC," said Swartzberg.
For the FDA and the CDC, it just seems as if there isn’t enough data yet to support a new shot being administered now at this point in the pandemic.
"The problem is the absence of data doesn’t mean it's not a good idea," he said. "We just don't have the data to make a decision."
"This is a public health decision for well over 330 million people, so, it's a general decision," said Swartzberg. "It can't get very granular."
"Can't look at individual circumstances very well yet," he added.
New research that hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet coming out of Finland suggests that the benefits of the bivalent booster wane after just a couple of months, according to Swartzberg, in people aged 65 and older.
"I think that for people at high risk, the idea of getting another booster if it's been more than six months from your last one is not a bad idea," he said.
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
