CDC recommends spring COVID-19 booster shot for older adults
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Key takeaways:
- The CDC recommended that older adults get another booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine this spring.
- A CDC committee also recommended the world’s first chikungunya vaccine for certain people.
The CDC on Wednesday recommended a spring COVID-19 vaccine booster shot for adults aged 65 years or older.
CDC Director Mandy K. Cohen, MD, MPH, signed off on the recommendation made by the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that older adults receive an additional dose of the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine formula.
Adults in this age group received more than half of the COVID-19 vaccine doses given between October and December 2023.
“Today’s recommendation allows older adults to receive an additional dose of this season’s COVID-19 vaccine to provide added protection,” Cohen said in a statement. “Most COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations last year were among people aged 65 years or older. An additional vaccine dose can provide added protection that may have decreased over time for those at highest risk.”
The ACIP voted 11 to 1 to approve the recommendation after some members noted that older patients have asked about spring boosters — in 2022 and 2023, they were available for older adults as soon as 4 months after their most recent COVID-19 vaccine.
The United States switched to monovalent versions of the COVID-19 vaccines this past fall and recommended that everyone aged older than 6 months get one.
David C. Kaslow, MD, director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review in the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, noted before Wednesday’s vote that research has shown that longer intervals between COVID-19 vaccine doses may produce higher antibody levels.
“Only 40% of people over 65 years of age have received the indicated dose in the current package insert for the 2023-2024 formula,” Kaslow said. “The biggest public health impact would likely come from increasing the number of people 65 years of age and older who have received that indicated dose.”
Kaslow said the timing of a spring booster should be considered given the potential that a new COVID-19 vaccine formula could be available in the fall.
“If [an updated vaccine formula] is recommended this year, and if it’s available in September, then giving an additional dose of the 2023-2024 formula any later than June this year may not be optimal,” Kaslow said.
The ACIP also recommended the world’s first chikungunya vaccine for use among people aged 18 years or older who are traveling to a country or territory where there is a chikungunya outbreak. People traveling to a country that does not have an active outbreak but where there is evidence of the virus being spread to humans in the previous 5 years may also be vaccinated.
The recommendation specifically notes that vaccination is recommended for people older than age 65 years, especially those with underlying medical conditions, who are likely to have some exposure to mosquitoes or a person who has been in that country for 3 months or longer.
Additionally, the committee recommended chikungunya vaccination for laboratory clinicians with potential exposure to the virus.
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