A nurse prepares a syringe of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine on August 11, 2021 in Los Angeles, Calif. (AFP / Robyn Beck)
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The United States authorized, on the night of Thursday to Friday, the injection of a third dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine against Covid-19 for certain people with weakened immune systems.
“The country has entered a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the FDA is fully aware that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk of contracting serious illness,” said Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the United States Drugs Agency (FDA).
The third dose may be given to people who have received an organ transplant or those with “a similar level of immunosuppression,” the agency said in a statement.
Healthy people “do not need an extra dose of the Covid vaccine yet,” added Ms Woodcock.
Less than 3% of U.S. adults are immunocompromised, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the nation’s leading federal public health agency.
Janet Woodcock, Acting Commissioner of the United States Drugs Agency (FDA), July 20, 2021 in Washington (POOL / Stefani Reynolds)
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This immune weakness, for example in patients with cancer or AIDS, can come directly from health problems, but also from the drugs they take to solve them. This is the case with transplant recipients, who follow treatments intended to lower the immune system to prevent rejection of the transplanted organ.
In these people, the immune response triggered by the injection of the vaccine is weaker than in healthy people, which affects its effectiveness.
However, a third dose makes it possible to increase the protection of immunocompromised against Covid-19, according to studies qualified as “promising” by Moderna, in a reaction to the decision of the FDA.
– Not for the elderly –
A CDC advisory committee specializing in vaccinations is scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss the matter. The agency should then publish specific recommendations for healthcare professionals for the administration of this third dose.
According to an internal CDC document revealed by ABC, around a million people have already arranged for a third injection without being authorized. Asked about the question Thursday, the director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, confirmed that the phenomenon was studied by his agency, and asked the population to “follow the recommendations”.
Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for a moratorium on booster doses to fight inequality between rich countries, where vaccines abound, and poor countries, which have failed to immunize. only a small part of their population.
The United States rejected the call, saying it did not “need” to choose between administering a third dose to its citizens or donating it to poor countries.
Other countries are already administering a third dose to immunocompromised people, such as France and Israel, or Germany from September. These three countries have also announced a booster dose for older people, unlike the United States.
“We don’t currently believe that, other than immunocompromised people, there is a need for booster doses,” White House pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci said on CBS Thursday morning.
– Inflection of speech –
Mr. Fauci stressed on NBC that it was necessary to distinguish between immunocompromised people who never had a “good immune response” after two injections, and “the duration of the response” in those in good health.
Covid-19 cases and daily deaths linked to Covid-19 officially recorded in the United States, figures as of August 12 (AFP /)
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However, he indicated that the level of protection in the latter was observed “very closely”. “And if it turns out that they need (a third dose) at some point, we’ll be ready to give them,” he said. “Inevitably there will be a time when we have to do recalls,” he added.
The speech has therefore changed since the beginning of July. In reaction to an announcement from Pfizer, which said it planned to seek authorization for a third dose of its vaccine soon, the FDA and the CDC then quickly issued a statement assuring that vaccinated Americans “did not need to. a reminder at the present time “.
More than 619,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States, and the number of contaminations has increased sharply since the end of June due to the spread of the Delta variant.
Vaccines are free and widely available in the United States, but only half of the population is fully vaccinated. After a sharp drop between early April and early July, the pace of vaccination has rebounded slightly in recent weeks, especially in states with the highest number of daily cases.
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