Federal regulators at the United States Food and Drug Administration are aiming to approve Covid-19 booster shots for all vaccinated adults over 18 years of age who are at least six months past their second dose by this week.

Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is slated to convene on Friday to discuss the safety and efficacy of the extra inoculations.

There are, however, lingering unknowns.

More than 30 million Americans have gotten a booster shot. But 30 to 40 percent of vaccinated adults are still not eligible for the booster.

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Unfortunately, it is highly likely that the widening availability of boosters will be insufficient to stave off another brutal coronavirus wave.

On Tuesday, White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country, forewarned of a “double-whammy” winter surge of Covid-19 due to the convergence of waning immunity and the relentless spread of the highly virulent Delta variant.

“The somewhat unnerving aspect of it is that if you keep the level of dynamics of the virus in the community at a high level – obviously the people who are most vulnerable are the unvaccinated — but when you have a virus as transmissible as delta, in the context of waning immunity, that dynamic is going to negatively impact even the vaccinated people. So it’s a double whammy,” Fauci said in a recorded statement at the 2021 STAT Summit.

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Brandon Gage

Article by Brandon Gage