The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday released updated guidelines that revealed there’s a fourth COVID-19 shot available for immunocompromised people.
The CDC guidelines said some immunocompromised people who received either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will have the chance to get a fourth shot.
- Those people include anyone over 18 years old who are “moderately to severely immunocompromised” and received three doses of an mRNA vaccine already.
- People can receive the fourth COVID-19 shot six months after getting their third Pfizer or Moderna booster shot.
Last week, the CDC endorsed COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, opening the door for millions of more people to receive additional doses of the vaccine, as I wrote for the Deseret News. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot had already been approved.
- The CDC said people can mix and match their COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, too. This means if your first two shots were from the Pfizer vaccine, you can take a Moderna booster shot.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, said last week on the “Today” show there isn’t a preference for which shot you should get.
- “We do not indicate a preference … it really is fine to get a different vaccine,” she said.
Not everyone needs a COVID-19 booster, though. Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, told CNN the vaccine boosters are strong enough to protect most people.
- “We have to define what’s the goal of this vaccine. If the goal of this vaccine is protection against serious illness, meaning the kind of illness that causes you to seek medical attention or go to the hospital or the ICU, the current vaccines, as two-dose vaccines, are doing exactly that,” he told CNN. “So, you don’t really need a booster dose at least as far as those data are concerned.”