The American government plans to provide the population with booster vaccinations against the coronavirus, expected from September.
Senior health officials, including CDC director Rochelle Walensky, presented a plan on Wednesday.
American adults should be able to get a third dose eight months after completing their first two vaccinations with the preparations from Moderna or Pfizer / Biontech.
The background to this is the spread of the particularly contagious Delta variant as well as data evaluations, according to which the protection of the vaccines against infection decreases over time.
The booster vaccinations could therefore start at the end of September.
The plan is still subject to FDA reviews of the effectiveness and safety of the booster vaccinations with both preparations.
However, one is prepared to offer such “booster shots” from September 20th.
Worry about removing your vaccination protection
Such extra vaccinations are probably also necessary for those Americans who were vaccinated with the preparation from Johnson & Johnson, it said.
The vaccinations with this preparation started later, so fewer data are available and the analyzes are not yet complete.
CDC director Walensky said data analysis showed that vaccines' effectiveness against infection decreased over time.
The protection of vaccinations against serious illness or death, on the other hand, is currently "relatively high".
However, there is concern that this too may decrease over time and that the protection against infection with the Delta variant is generally lower.
Therefore, the decision was made to prepare booster vaccinations on a broad front.
Continue to deliver vaccines to other countries
Government officials insisted that the plan would not change efforts to persuade Americans to get vaccinated at all. In the United States, around 51 percent of the population of around 330 million people have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to date. Almost 60 percent of the population received at least one dose of vaccine. In view of widespread vaccination skepticism, the vaccination campaign is now making slow progress.
The Corona coordinator of the White House, Jeffrey Zients, emphasized that the booster vaccinations should also be free and easy to get. "We have enough vaccine stocks for every American," he said, and at the same time assured him that the US would not cease to sell vaccines to other countries. The United States has so far donated more than 115 million vaccine doses to 80 states - more donations than all other countries combined.