COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) The Ohio Department of Health has released the latest number of COVID-19 cases in the state.
Numbers as of Thursday, Jan. 6 follow:
The 21-day case average is above 14,900.
The department reported9,738people started the vaccination process, bringing the total to7,032,160, which is 60.16% of the states population. And31,977received booster shots.
The Ohio Hospital Association reported the following numbers related to COVID-19 patients:
Ohios nursing homes said theyre facing a staffing shortage that is getting worse every day. The official number of reported COVID-19 cases could be significantly underestimated, according to health leaders. The disparity comes from an unknown number of unreported at-home rapid test results. Influential government advisers are strongly urging that teens as young as 12 get COVID-19 boosters as soon as theyre eligible, a key move as the U.S. battlesthe omicron surgeandschools strugglewith how to restart classes amid the spike.
Total vaccine doses distributed: 632,575,655
Patients who've received the first dose: 245,653,518
Patients whove received the second dose: 207,016,514
% of population fully vaccinated: 62.4%
% of infections tied to the Omicron Variant: 95.4%
% of infections tied to the Delta Variant: 4.6%
Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday that 10 hospital-based COVID-19 testing sites will be fully operational by the end of next week, part of a larger effort to increase testing in Maryland.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday that 10 hospital-based COVID-19 testing sites will be fully operational by the end of next week, with 10 more to open after that as part of a larger effort to increase coronavirus testing throughout the state.
The goal, the governor said, is to keep people from going to crowded emergency rooms to get a test.
Hogan spoke at the University of Maryland Laurel Medical Center, which will serve as one of the 10 soon-to-be-opened sites. Another testing site will also launch in partnership with the federal government at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, where the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide staffing support.
They will join two hospital-based testing sites that opened last week: the University of Maryland Chesapeake Medical Center and the Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center.
All sites will be open daily to walk-ups, with no appointment necessary.
Were making progress, Hogan said. Weve opened up a couple now already, and with the additional 10 sites by the end of next week and another 10 after that, hopefully its going to make a difference.
Hogan said hes already noticed a dramatic difference at the Chesapeake Medical Center, which has reported a 72% drop in emergency room visits since the outside testing site was set up.
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Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
We dont need to go to an emergency room to get a test, Hogan stressed. Theres people really sick that are coming to the emergency rooms that our health care heroes need to take care of.
Hogan said Maryland has an abundant supply of PCR tests.
In addition, were in the process of distributing 1 million at-home rapid tests through local health departments, and were finalizing numerous additional emergency procurements to acquire as many more rapid tests as we possibly can from multiple sources, he said, noting that Maryland is on track to receive another 500,000 at-home rapid tests in the next week.
The surge in demand for testing has been largely driven by the rapid spread of the omicron variant. Hogan said omicron now accounts for 90% of lab-confirmed COVID cases and 90% of COVID hospitalizations in the state.
Mohan Suntha, president and CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System, said hospitals are seeing a sharp rise in patients because of the omicron variant stress that is borne by our front-line health care workforce.
Across our health system at the University of Maryland Medical System, a month ago, we had 200 patients with COVID-19. Today, that number stands at 800, Suntha said.
He said that 75% of the patients who are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, while less than 5% of patients are vaccinated and boosted.
So an important message in helping support our health care workforce is to be vaccinated and to be boosted because the data I just gave you are facts.
Suntha said that includes children, who are now eligible to be vaccinated, noting that the state has also seen a rise in the hospitalization of children with COVID.
Hogan said hes excited that 12- to 17-year-olds now qualify for booster shots. He said that while Maryland is one of the most vaccinated states in the country, with 92% of its residents vaccinated, his administration will continue hammering home the message that people need to get vaccinated and boosted.
Although its a small number of people here in our state 8% of the people who have refused to get the vaccine we just still encourage you to do it, Hogan said, pointing out that less than 8% of the people are responsible for 75% of the hospitalizations and deaths. I mean, I dont know how much clearer to make it to you the vaccines and boosters work.
On November 24, 2021, scientists in South Africa revealed that they had discovered a worrying new variant of SARS-CoV-2.
They reported that the variant was spreading very rapidly in southern Africa and contained a large number of unusual mutations likely to make the virus more infectious than previous variants.
Within days of the scientists announcement, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the new variant, called Omicron, was a variant of concern.
Confirming the scientists early fears, by early January 2022, Omicron was driving an unprecedented surge in cases worldwide.
Many of the mutations that health experts identified in Omicron are rare among previously sequenced variants of the virus.
This presents a puzzle for scientists because there are no known intermediate variants to reveal how Omicron evolved. It is almost as if the new variant appeared out of nowhere.
There are three alternative theories for the origin of Omicron:
The second theory is the most popular among virologists and epidemiologists.
However, some experts have argued that other viruses, such as the influenza virus, tend to become less infectious over time in individuals with compromised immune systems.
They cite evidence that while such viruses evolve adaptations to their hosts immune system, they accumulate other mutations that make them less able to cause infections in other people.
However, Omicron appears to be more infectious than all previously known variants.
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have now found evidence that Omicron may have evolved its large collection of unusual mutations in mice.
They believe that an earlier variant, from the lineage known as B.1.1, jumped from a human into a mouse in mid-2020. Over time, it evolved a range of adaptations to its new host before causing an infection in another human in late 2021.
They identified 45 point mutations in the RNA of Omicron that they propose occurred after the variant split from its last known common ancestor in humans.
Point mutations are substitutions of single chemical letters, known as bases, in the four-letter genetic code.
Past research suggests RNA viruses tend to pick up more mutations in particular bases, according to which animal host they are replicating inside.
Using this knowledge, the authors of the new paper have previously identified the mutation signature of different animal hosts of SARS-CoV-2.
Their new study found that the relative frequency of the new point mutations in Omicron is characteristic of evolution in a mouse host rather than a human host.
They discovered that the mutation signature of Omicron is different from several variants known to have evolved in humans, including three variants isolated from patients with chronic COVID-19.
The scientists also found that several mutations in Omicrons spike protein, which SARS-CoV-2 uses to cause infection in host cells, help the virus bind more tightly to its target receptor in mice.
They have published their findings in the Journal of Genetics and Genomics.
In the paper, they conclude:
Collectively, our results suggest that the progenitor of Omicron jumped from humans to mice, rapidly accumulated mutations conducive to infecting that host, then jumped back into humans, indicating an inter-species evolutionary trajectory for the Omicron outbreak.
Biologist Matt Ridley, author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, responded to the study on Twitter:
Looks like Omicron developed from a human variant in a mouse. The question is: what mice and where? House mice in homes? Or lab mice in labs?
We believe that Omicron likely evolved in a wild mouse population, the senior author of the study, Wenfeng Qian, Ph.D., told Medical News Today.
He said that mutations in the spike protein of Omicron significantly overlapped with mutations in SARS-CoV-2 viruses that have adapted to a mouse host.
However, 18 out of a total of 25 mutations in the Omicron spike were not present in any of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses they studied that were adapted to lab mice.
In addition, he pointed out that Omicron appears to have diverged from the B.1.1 lineage, with which it shares seven mutations.
It is implausible that a lab will use a B.1.1 variant for their mouse adaptation experiments, he commented. Instead, he said they would most likely use a strain of SARS-CoV-2 that researchers sequenced at the start of the pandemic, known as Wuhan-Hu-1.
Evolutionary biologist Mike Worobey, Ph.D., of the University of Arizona in Tucson, said the most plausible theory remained that Omicron evolved in an immune-compromised patient with a protracted [SARS-CoV-2] infection.
I think their approach is really interesting, but I still think it is more likely that the unusual array of mutations in Omicron occurred in a chronically human [with the infection], he told MNT.
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by: Eli Sherman, Nexstar Media Wire
Eleanor Slater Hospital (Credit: WPRI)
CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) A Rhode Island hospital is grappling with an outbreak of coronavirus cases among patients just days after the state-run facility called in COVID-19-positive workers to help cover shifts amid an ongoing staffing shortage.
Eleanor Slater Hospital in Cranston on Thursday reported 28 patients had tested positive for the virus as of that morning, totaling about 14% of the facilitys roughly 200 patients. The outbreak of cases comes in the wake of the state announcing it would align with federal guidance and permit COVID-positive health care workers to continue treating patients.
Eleanor Slater used two asymptomatic COVID-positive workers to staff operations on Saturday and three more on Monday, according to the states website.
As Eleanor Slater Hospital takes steps to control COVID infections, staff and administrators are working very hard under incredibly challenging conditions to provide the best care for ESH patients, spokesperson Randy Edgar wrote in a statement. Eleanor Slater, like other hospitals, is facing added staffing challenges because of COVID.
Edgar did not immediately respond to a question about whether the hospital could determine if the 28 patient cases were connected to the COVID-positive workers.
Eleanor Slater was one of two health care facilities earlier to use COVID-positive workers under the new policy.
The lack of health care workers available to cover shifts reflects an ongoing staffing crisis in Rhode Island that has worsened in recent months. The states largest private, nonprofit hospitals earlier this week said they have not yet had to use the new policy.
Edgar said the state would continue to update its website on a regular basis to inform the public about future COVID-related information, including new cases moving forward.
A Czech female tennis player joined Novak Djokovic at a Melbourne hotel after she had her visa canceled and was detained by Australian immigration officials over COVID-19 vaccination issues.
Czech Republic officials said Friday that Renata Voracova planned to leave Australia but asked for clarification from the Australian government over her detention. The hotel where Voracova and Djokovic is where Australia holds refugees and asylum seekers.
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Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic in action against Johanna Larsson of Sweden in their Round One match during Day One of the Fuzion 100 Southsea Trophy at Canoe Lake Leisure on June 26, 2018, in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. (Christopher Lee/Getty Images for LTA)
"We can confirm that Czech tennis player Renata Voracova is in the same detention as Djokovic, together with several other players," the Czech Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"We submitted through our embassy in Canberra a protest note and are asking for an explanation of the situation. However, Renata Voracova decided to drop out of the tournament due to limited possibilities for training and to leave Australia."
AUSTRALIA'S DEPUTY PM MAKES CONSEQUENCES CLEAR TO NOVAK DJOKOVIC AMID TENNIS ROW
Renata Voracova of the Czech Republic returns a shot to Shuai Peng of China during a first round match at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, on March 10, 2011. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
Voracova, 38, has had most of her success come in doubles matches. She is 648-410 as a doubles partner and 499-420 as a singles player. In either case, she hasnt made it further than the second round in the Australian Open. She finished in the second round in singles in 2007 and in the second round in doubles in 2003 and 2014.
While Voracova is expected to leave the country, Djokovic has launched a legal fight.
Djokovic is appealing Australias decision to cancel his visa over his COVID-19 medical exemption. According to Tennis Australia, Djokovics request for exemption was granted to play in the Australian Open but it apparently wasnt enough to get into the country.
Serbia's Novak Djokovic holds the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup after defeating Russia's Daniil Medvedev in the men's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Andy Brownbill, File)
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Djokovics case is adjourned until Monday. He wasnt expected to leave the hotel despite pleas to allow him to be transferred to a home he was supposed to rent.
Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has issued updated recommendations for vaccination and preventive treatment of COVID-19 for people with cancer.
The guidance is based on the latest approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the rising rates of COVID-19.
It includes new information on the preventive use of human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), which have recently been approved by the FDA.
In early December 2021, the FDA granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to AstraZeneca for its combination of the long-acting monoclonal antibodies tixagevimab/cilgavimab (Evusheld) to prevent COVID-19 in people with moderately to severely compromised immune systems. As previously reported by Medscape Medical News, the EUA was authorized on the basis of a phase 3 trial that showed that a one-time dose of the two agents reduced the risk of developing symptomatic COVID by 77% in comparison with placebo (P < .001).
Even though vaccines currently provide the best defense against COVID-19, certain immune-compromised individuals or those who have a history of severe adverse reactions to a vaccine need an alternative prevention option, Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, commented at the time of the EUA.
Preexposure prophylaxis is indicated for adults and children starting at age 12 (weighing at least 40 kg) and who have moderate to severe immune compromise and may not be responsive to vaccination.
The NCCN notes that patients with blood cancers and those receiving stem cell transplants or engineered cellular therapy (CAR T-cells) are more likely to have inadequate responses to COVID-19 vaccination and are at highest risk of major COVID-19 complications. Therefore, the committee states that it is reasonable to prioritize this population for preexposure therapy over patients with solid tumor cancers in the event of limited supply.
"We have new agents to prevent and treat COVID-19 that will benefit patients with cancer," said Brahm Segal, MD, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, co-leader of the NCCN Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Vaccination and Pre-exposure Prophylaxis, in a statement. "An important challenge on a national level is to ensure drug availability to patients with cancer and others at high risk for COVID-19."
The committee also supports recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, and the American Society of Hematology that previously vaccinated patients completing stem cell transplantation or engineered cellular therapy should receive a repeat vaccination series starting 3 months post treatment.
The new updated guidance is as follows:
The NCCN committee endorses vaccination for all eligible persons, based on FDA-approved indications or EUA. With the widespread availability of highly effective and safe vaccines, the committee reiterates the need for patients with cancer to be fully immunized, including receiving third doses and boosters.
Vaccination is also recommended for caregivers, household/close contacts, and the general public.
Vaccination should be delayed for at least 3 months following hematopoietic cell transplantation or engineered cellular therapy in order to improve vaccine efficacy. Vaccine delays in patients with cancer should also include those recommended for the general public (eg, recent exposure to COVID-19, recent monoclonal antibody therapy).
The committee supports use of any of the available FDA-approved or EUA vaccines but with strong preference for mRNA vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech [BNT162b2/Comirnaty] or Moderna [mRNA1273]) over the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (Ad26.COV2.S adenovirus vector) vaccine, as recommended by the CDC-ACIP Vaccine Advisory Committee.
The committee strongly supports mandates for healthcare worker vaccination.
The NCCN also outlined specific vaccine recommendations for cancer patients, based on their tumor type and treatment.
"The medical and scientific community's response to the COVID-19 crisis continues to be extremely encouraging, even in the face of setbacks like new variants and surging infection rates," said Robert W. Carlson, MD, chief executive officer, NCCN, in a statement.
"Rapid research, thoughtful analyses, and tireless care delivery is allowing us to save so many more people than we could have a year ago. We hope by sharing this simplified guidance highlighting the latest research and approvals, we can help make sure the very latest in evidence-based care reaches as many patients and providers as possible."
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One of the worlds leading experts on coronavirus, Luis Enjuanes, works out of an office no more than five square meters in size. On the second floor of the National Biotechnology Center (CNB) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), in Tres Cantos, Madrid, he has a team of 16 people working in the laboratory outside his door, where the search for a vaccine that provides sterilizing immunity against the coronavirus began almost two years ago.
If there is one thing scientists dont like, its answering the question most loved by journalists: When could it (in this case, the vaccine) be ready? There are so many factors that influence how research pans out that predicting its success often leads to mistakes. Initially, Enjuanes team thought they might have the vaccine by now. But there have been obstacles. At this point, if everything goes to plan, Enjuanes is speaking about one more year. Luckily, vaccines are no longer as urgent as they were at the beginning of the pandemic, he says.
For Enjuanes teams vaccine to be worthwhile, it must contribute a characteristic lacking in those that already exist. This could be sterilizing immunity, meaning those who get the vaccine neither become infected nor infect others. The most effective way this can be administered is via a nasal application. If you use intramuscular injection, either in the arm, in the thigh or in the buttock, it provides a systemic, internal immunity, which lasts for 20, 40, 60 years and a single dose is good. However, it is not what we need right now; what we need now is immunity that protects the mucous membranes, he says.
The problem with intranasal vaccines is that getting them approved is complicated. Regulatory bodies subject them to strong safety measures, as they fear that some component of the drug might cross the blood-brain barrier the one that protects the brain from harmful substances and cause unwanted side effects.
Enjuanes maintains that this possibility is minimal and that there are other drugs that are applied through the nose without this happening. But since it is not the health authorities preferred method, they are working on two versions of the vaccine; one, intranasal and the other, intramuscular. I am convinced that if they could administer the same Pfizer or Moderna vaccine intranasally, two doses would not be necessary, he says. And the people who got it would not get the virus. And if they did, it would not replicate and they would not pass it on to other people.
In the race to launch the first effective vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and several other brands, such as AstraZeneca, were first over the finishing line. Janssen, which arrived a little later, had to provide something the others lacked, which turned out to be that it did not need to be stored at extremely low temperatures and it required (in principle) a single dose. Vaccines against Covid-19 will continue to evolve and adapt, bringing improvements, but there will no longer be the urgency that was there initially when it was imperative that something be found to put the brakes on an explosive pandemic ripping through an un-immunized global population.
There are more than 300 coronavirus vaccines currently being researched. Of these, 135 have reached the stage of being clinically tested on humans. Among the half-dozen that are being developed in Spain, the only one that has reached this stage has been developed by the pharmaceutical company Hipra. It is in phase II-B and is being tested on 1,000 volunteers to verify its safety and efficacy as a booster.
Enjuanes and his team aim to test their vaccine on people early next year. The first and second [clinical phases] are economically very feasible even for our economy, our laboratory and our institution the CSIC because you can cover that with 4 million or 5 million, says Enjuanes. But phase 3, which involves up to 60,000 people, costs millions. And you can only do that in collaboration with a major company. We are in talks with a company that has a lot of scientific experience and great potential, adds Enjuanes, who would be retired if it were not for the pandemic.
The team uses CNB facilities, allowing them to work in laboratories with three levels of security. Level 1 is distinguished by its yellow door. With little space between researchers, they build mutants of the coronavirus in which they isolate genes that mitigate its virulence in order to develop future vaccines. On a dish, Enjuanes shows how the cells infected by the virus disappear and those that do not become infected remain visible, a sign that there is an immune response.
Level 2 has orange doors. Here, researchers work with microorganisms that would not be able to infect humans even if they escaped. However, to enter, you have to go through an airlocked compartment and put on a gown that is kept in the room at all times.
The jewel in the crown at CNB is the 3+ security laboratory the highest is Level 4 by international standards. The door is red, and resembles the door to a submarine. A camera monitors those entering and leaving the premises. Dangerous pathogens are handled inside and the measures to keep them there are extremely strict.
Here, the pressure is negative: when the door opens, air enters but does not leave. Anyone going in must wear airtight clothing and breathe through a filter: this is what differentiates the space from Level 4, where oxygen is supplied by a cylinder. Inside the laboratory, the air is filtered and each researcher is isolated within their own cubicle. Only those authorized to do so can access Level 3.
This is where we assess the mice after they have been subjected to a lethal dose of the virus, for example, Enjuanes explains. And we see if the vaccinated mice survive compared to the unvaccinated ones.
For the time being, they can only test on animals. If the safety data in macaques is good, they will try to make the leap to the clinical trial phase. But there is still a long way to go; more than 85% of the drugs that reach phase 1 fall by the wayside. The good news is that vaccines against infectious diseases have a better prognosis: a third of those that reach human trials end up being approved.
English version by Heather Galloway.
COVID-19 Expectations on the Roll-out of Booster Shots - Episode 6
January 6, 2022
A panel of doctors explains whether or not someone can get a different COVID-19 booster from their original vaccinations and how they compare.
"Fully vaccinated" won't likely mean three shots, but officials are now avoiding the term altogether.
As the omicron variant changes the landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is moving away from using the phrase "fully vaccinated," even if a person has received a booster shot.
"We're using the terminology 'keeping your vaccinations up to date' rather than ... 'fully vaccinated,'" Fauci said at a National Institutes of Health presentation on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported. "Right now, optimal protection is with a third shot of an mRNA or a second shot of a J&J." The mRNA vaccines are Moderna and Pfizer.
As of Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention'sCOVID-19 web pageuses the term "up to date" in regard to reaching optimal vaccine protection.
Current vaccines have proven less effective against the highly contagiousomicron variantthan they are against delta or other COVID-19 variants. In addition, protection gained from the vaccines decreases over time, particularly after six months.
Mounting evidenceindicatesbooster shotsare needed to "top up" COVID-19-fighting antibodies, especially against the new omicron variant. On Monday, the FDA expanded the authorization of boosters of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to includechildren ages 12 to 15, and those as young as 5 with compromised immune systems.
The CDC site still states that adults are "fully vaccinated" two weeks after a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or a single dose of the J&J/Janssen vaccine.
"Individuals are considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19 if they've received their primary series," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a briefing Wednesday. "That definition is not changing ... but we are now recommending individuals stay up to date with additional doses they are eligible for."
Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, also clarified on Wednesday that federal vaccine mandates for incoming foreign travelers, health care workers and companies with more than 100 workers would not change to include boosters. "We do not have any plans to change that," Zients stated plainly.
Breakthrough cases in people who've completed two shots of an mRNA vaccine or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have become increasingly common: In New York, such infections were five times higher for the last week of December than the first,NBC New Yorkreported. NYC Mayor Eric Abrams is considering a booster mandate for teachers, police officers and other city workers, he toldABC's This Weekon Sunday.
Many schools and businesses are already requiring boosters. TheNFL announcedthat, starting Jan. 14, all media covering the NFL playoffs or the Super Bowl will need to have received a COVID-19 booster. Last month, the league mandatedbooster shots for coaches and staff-- but not players.
In November, Connecticut's Wesleyan University became thefirst college to make boosters mandatory for students. Several other northeastern colleges quickly followed suit, includingall of the Ivy League schools, followed by manyCaliforniaandOregonschools.
On New Year's Eve,New York Governor Kathy Hochul announcedthat all students in the State University of New York and City University of New York systems must be boosted to return to campus in person, as of Jan. 15.
For more, here's the latest on the Moderna booster shots, what you need to know about the Pfizer antiviral pilland how to pick between the vaccine boosters. The article continues below.
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The highly contagious omicron variant is currently the dominant COVID-19 strain in the US, representing nearly 60% of new infections. As such, COVID-19 cases have rocketed to all-time highs, according to the CDC, which reported a seven-day moving average of just under 500,000 new cases on Jan. 3, or roughly a 230% rise over 14 days.
While two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine (or one of J&J) combined with a booster doesn't provide complete protection from COVID-19, the vaccines offer a sturdy defense against illness. In a press briefing Dec. 29, Walensky said an unvaccinated person has 10 times the risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and 20 times the risk of dying compared with someone who's vaccinated and boosted.
According to the CDC's previous messaging, you're fully vaccinated two weeks after you receive the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or two weeks after a single dose of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine.
The CDC also considers you fully vaccinated if you received any single-dose vaccine listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization or any combination of the two-dose vaccines approved by the FDA or listed by the WHO for emergency use.
Though the official definition of "fully vaccinated" isn't likely to change, Fauci has said three shots should be consideredthe new baseline-- part of the primary series of vaccinations rather than a "booster."
"It should be a proper one from the get-go -- three shots," he said in September.
Israel's national coronavirus czar, Dr. Salman Zarka, told his country it should prepare for a fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine. Fauci has said that the need for a fourth jab is "conceivable" in the US, too, but not just yet.
"In the future, we might need an additional shot, but right now, we are hoping that we will get a greater degree of durability of protection from that booster shot," Fauci saidat a White House briefingDec. 29. "We're going to take one step at a time, get the data from the third boost and then make decisions based on scientific data."
As preliminary studies show omicron's ability to infect those who are considered fully vaccinated, the definition began shifting -- if not formally, then practically -- from two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to three.
"As far as I'm concerned -- I make it very clear -- if you want to be optimally protected, get boosted," Fauci saidon CNN's State of the Union, when asked if three shots will become the standard.
Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the University of California at San Francisco's department of medicine, said he thinks the definition change is coming soon.
"It's increasingly clear that if you have three shots, you're in pretty good shape," Wachter said last month during anonline COVID-19 discussionhosted by the San Francisco Chronicle. "I think we will stop calling people with two shots 'fully vaccinated' within a week or two," Wachter added. "Omicron is going to make that case quite vividly."
How many shots to be protected from omicron?
Vaccine makers are already pushing for three doses as the new standard. "Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the omicron strain, it's clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine," Pfizer Chairman Albert Bourlasaid in a statementon early results about the Pfizer vaccine's continued effectiveness.
The next step would be for the CDC to change its definition of what it means to be fully vaccinated, currently defined astwo shots of the mRNA vaccines or one dose of Johnson & Johnson's.
Will there be afourth shot? Israel has already started rolling out a fourth vaccine shot for medical workers, those of 60 and people who are immunocompromised. On Monday, the country began a study on the effectiveness of a second booster, testing 150 healthcare workers at the Sheba Medical Center. A spokesman says the study "will zero in on the efficacy of the vaccine in producing antibodies, and safety, in order to ascertain if a fourth vaccine is needed in general,"according to Reuters.
At last week'sWhite House COVID-19 press briefing, Fauci stressed the importance of first collecting and analyzing data from the third shot before considering a fourth dose.
For more, here's what we know about theomicron variantand how thenew mutation compares with delta. And here's how tostore your vaccine card on your phone.
If two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are not enough to guard against omicron, would we need a variant-specific booster to restore protection? According to Fauci, "At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster."
But getting from the two-dose definition to three will take effort:The CDC website says almost 206 million Americans right now are "fully vaccinated" with the Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. That's 62% percent of the total US population. However, only 68 million in the US have received a booster -- only a third of the so-called fully vaccinated, or a little more than 20% of the total US population.
"That's why getting more Americans vaccinated and boosted is central to the president's plan to fight COVID and confront omicron this winter," Zients said during last week's White House briefing.
Moderna has said it is studying an omicron-specific vaccine, as well as a multivalent shot that could protect against the alpha and delta strains, but clinical trials aren't expected to start until next year.
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The CDC says you can "ensure you are optimally protected against COVID-19" by getting vaccinated and getting a booster. If you got the Pfizer vaccine, the CDC says you should get a booster at least five months after your second dose. If you got Moderna, the agency says you should get a booster at least six months after the second shot.
The Moderna vaccine, Spikevax, has been authorized only for adults 18 and up. The FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine for people 16 and up, and given emergency authorization for children 5 to 15 years old.
On Wednesday, the CDC expanded its recommendation on booster shots to include teens ages 12 to 17. In the CDC press release, Walensky said, "It is critical that we protect our children and teens from COVID-19 infection and the complications of severe disease. ... This booster dose will provide optimized protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. I encourage all parents to keep their children up to date with CDC's COVID-19 vaccine recommendations."
If you got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, see the next section.
The CDC website indicates "optimal" protection after receiving a second shot of the one-dose J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at least two months after the first.
Last year, the agencyrecommended Moderna or Pfizer's mRNA vaccinesoverJohnson & Johnson''s viral-vector shot, citing a rare but dangerous blood-clot side effect. But a booster of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine provides strong protection against the omicron variant of COVID-19 --stronger, even, than Pfizer's jab -- according to new research.
A Dec. 30 studyof 69,000 South African health care workers found that, among individuals who already received one dose of the J&J vaccine, a booster given six to nine months later improved their odds against hospitalization from 63% to 85%.
A separate study by Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found a J&J booster given to individuals who were initially given two doses of Pfizer's mRNA vaccine generated a 41-fold increase in antibody response within a month, compared with only a 17-fold increase when given a booster of the Pfizer vaccine.
CNET reached out to Johnson & Johnson for comment but hasn't gotten a response.
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