COVID boosters reportedly may start in Sept. Here’s the latest data [Updated]

Enlarge / COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Madrid on Feb. 26, 2021. (credit: Getty | NurPhoto)

Update 8/16/2021 11 pm ET: The Biden administration has decided to recommend that most Americans get a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot eight months after their initial two-dose regimen, according to a report by The New York Times. The administration could announce the decision as early as this week and begin offering the third doses as early as mid-September, two officials familiar with the decision told the Times.

Nursing home residents and frontline health workers are expected to be first in line for the extra shots, followed by older people. The administration cited the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases and the rampant spread of the hyper-transmissible delta variant in making their decision. Officials also pointed to new data from Israel suggesting that older people vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at the start of the year have since lost some protection against severe disease. Specifically, people ages 65 and older who received their second dose in January or February were only 55 percent to 60 percent protected from severe disease (though the error bars are large).

Vaccine efficacy against severe disease in older people. (credit: Israel Ministry of Health)

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