Rochelle Walensky, director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), speaks during a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in Washington, DC on Thursday, November 4, 2021 .
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday reinforced their recommendation on Covid booster vaccinations, telling all adults that they “should” be given an additional dose amid growing concerns about the newly identified variant of Omicron.
“The recent appearance of the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) underscores the importance of vaccinations, boosters and preventive efforts that are necessary to protect against COVID-19,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Monday in a statement.
The CDC approved booster doses for all adults earlier this month, saying anyone over 18 “can” get an injection if they wanted one. Only people over 50 were told that they “should” “should” take the shots at this point. The agency now gives its strongest recommendation to anyone ages 18+, saying they should get an additional shot six months after their first Pfizer or Moderna series, or two months after their first Johnson & Johnson admission.
The World Health Organization warned in a newspaper published on Sunday that the global risk posed by Omicron was “very high”. The variant has more than 30 mutations in its spike protein alone, some of which are associated with higher transmission and reduced antibody protection. The WHO said these mutations could fuel future flare-ups with “serious consequences”.
“Early data from South Africa suggest increased portability of the Omicron variant, and scientists in the United States and around the world are urgently investigating the effectiveness of vaccines related to this variant,” Walensky said.
Although Omicron is believed to be more infectious than the predominant Delta variant, it is not yet clear how much the heavily mutated strain will affect the strength of the vaccines currently available. Moderna and Pfizer said they will have more data on this in about two weeks. The companies claim they can adapt their vaccines relatively quickly to combat new variants.
“I don’t think the result will be that the vaccines won’t protect,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday. “I think the result might be what we haven’t seen before, the vaccines are less protective.”
Bourla said Pfizer can develop a new vaccine within 100 days. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC on Monday that the company could quickly use a higher-dose booster vaccine against Omicron, but a variant-specific vaccine could take months.
Although Omicron has not yet been detected in the US, President Joe Biden said Monday that the country would face the variant sooner or later and encouraged Americans to get booster vaccinations for added protection. In her statement on Monday, Walensky urged people to also get tested.
“I also want to encourage people to take a COVID-19 test when they are sick,” said Walensky. “Reinforced testing will help us identify Omicron quickly.”
The emergence of Omicron came because public health officials were already concerned about a winter’s Covid spike and vaccine strength declining.
A study published in Science this month found that the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing infections decreased from 86% to 43% from February through October. Moderna’s vaccine decreased from 89% to 58% and J & J’s vaccine decreased from 86% to 13% effectiveness against infections in the same study.
However, in a clinical study of 10,000 people, Pfizer found that its booster dose provided 95% protection against symptomatic infections.
