“What we’re starting to see now is an uptick in hospitalizations among people who’ve been vaccinated but not boosted.”
That was the troubling observation shared by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease during a White House briefing Tuesday.
“It’s a significant proportion, but not the majority by any means,” Fauci said, stressing that most of the hospitalizations are still COVID patients who have not been inoculated and reiterating the importance of getting vaccinated.
"We have 62 million Americans eligible for vaccines who are still not vaccinated. The data that I show you do not lie. Vaccines protect you, your family, and your community," Fauci said. "And importantly, it is not too late, as Dr. Walensky has said. Get vaccinated now."
During her portion of the briefing, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky discussed the importance of the older generation getting a COVID vaccination booster even if they got their initial shots months ago. Walensky said they are “seeing an increase in emergency department visits among adults age 65 and older, which are now again higher than they are for younger age groups.”
Adults over 65 were among the first Americans to be vaccination-eligible.
Walensky also noted that their data shows booster shots to be effective, and that they could soon be available to a much larger section of the population.
"[The U.S. Food and Drug Administration] is currently evaluating data on the authorization of booster doses for all people over age 18. As we’ve done before, CDC will quickly review the safety and effectiveness data and make recommendations as soon as we hear from FDA," she said.
As cases continue to decrease in the south as the Delta surge subsides, COVID cases are on the rise pretty much everywhere else as the variant seems to have moved to other areas of the U.S.
After initially debating the necessity of COVID boosters, it is now expected that the FDA will authorize booster shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for everyone over the age of 18 sometime in the next week.
The news comes as families across the country make plans for holiday gatherings with Thanksgiving now just a week away and a multitude of traditional seasonal gatherings coming next month.
Related
