Vaccine boosters to roll out next month, as NC hospitalizations from delta variant surge
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced plans for COVID-19 vaccine boosters to combat waning immunity, as the delta variant causes cases to surge in North Carolina and the rest of the nation.
Meanwhile, North Carolina reported the most hospitalizations in the state due to the virus since Jan. 29.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said during a live-streamed White House press briefing Wednesday that the current plan is to make a third dose of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna available starting Sept. 20, pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration and a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The rollout would start with those groups who received their initial doses before the general public months ago, including health care workers, long-term care residents and older people, Murthy said.
Others would begin getting boosters eight months after they received their second dose.
Murthy said that officials decided to plan for boosters after seeing evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease over time, likely due to waning immunity and the strength of the delta variant, a highly contagious mutation of the coronavirus.
“We know that even highly effective vaccines become less effective over time. Our goal has been to determine when that time might come for the COVID-19 vaccines,” Murthy said. “Having reviewed the most current data, it is now our clinical judgment that the time to lay out a plan for COVID-19 boosters is now.”
Previous vaccine offers ‘high degree of protection’
The data still show that vaccinated people have protection against severe disease, Murthy said.
“If you are fully vaccinated, you still have a high degree of protection from the worst outcomes of COVID-19, severe disease and death,” he said.
The booster plan is there to jump ahead of the virus if that changes, he said.
“We are concerned that this pattern of decline that we are seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to a reduced protection against severe disease,” Murthy said.
Dr. David Wohl, infectious disease specialist at UNC-Chapel Hill, told The News & Observer that the vaccine protects against the delta variant and that the booster shots are there to maintain caution.
“If you have more antibodies around, you can protect yourself, even against the variants, better. That’s the idea behind the booster,” Wohl said. “This is all a hedge that I think is based upon some of the evidence pointing to a scenario we don’t want to happen, which is vaccinated people start to get really sick. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but the administration doesn’t want to take a chance on that.”
“It’s not reacting. It’s being very proactive, which I applaud,” Wohl said.
Murthy said that those who received the single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson will likely need an additional dose. He said officials expect more data on an additional J&J dose in the next few weeks.
J&J vaccines were not administered in North Carolina until March, so those who received it would not be eligible until at least eight months after, November at the earliest.
On Monday, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, based on FDA approval and CDC recommendation, announced that those who are moderately to severely immunocompromised are eligible for a third dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
Delta continues to drive virus spread
North Carolina reported 2,930 hospitalizations statewide on Wednesday due to COVID-19, the most since Jan. 29.
Health officials say the increase is due to the delta variant, which makes up over 86% of sequenced virus in North Carolina, according to the latest CDC data.
A week ago, state health officials said that over 90% of people hospitalized statewide due to the virus were unvaccinated.
And the average patient age was 44, down from 61 in January.
As of Wednesday, 48% of North Carolina’s total population is fully vaccinated. Among those eligible for the shot, ages 12 and up, 56% are fully vaccinated.
About a quarter of those hospitalized with the virus, 728, are being treated in intensive care units.
Overall hospitalizations have nearly quadrupled from a month ago.
DHHS reported 5,256 new cases Wednesday, bringing the daily average over the past week to nearly 5,200, nearly six times what it was a month ago.
Among the tests reported Monday, the latest available data, 13.2% returned positive. The average per day over the past week is over 12%. Health officials have said they want that rate at 5% or lower.
DHHS reported 57 additional deaths due to COVID-19 on Wednesday, but it didn’t specify the dates of death.
As of Wednesday, 13,952 North Carolinians have died due to the virus.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Vaccine boosters to roll out next month, as NC hospitalizations from delta variant surge."