A vial of SARS-CoV2 COVID-19 vaccine in a medical research laboratory

A small subgroup of vulnerable Americans will soon have access to a COVID-19 vaccine booster, top federal health officials said Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration is working with drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to allow fully vaccinated immunocompromised people, such as those taking certain cancer drugs and organ transplant recipients, to receive an additional protective shot. 

In a White House press briefing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., said that the number of people affected by this initial booster rollout is only about 3% of the U.S. population.

Although there may be a small overlap in the immunocompromised population that includes residents of long-term care facilities, the LTC sector is not yet a booster campaign target. But federal scientists are tracking the ongoing effectiveness of the vaccines in older adults and those in nursing homes, according to Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president.

“We don’t feel at this particular point that, apart from the immune-compromised, we don’t feel we need to give boosters right now,” Fauci told CBS This Morning. “But importantly … we’re following cohorts of individuals; elderly, younger individuals, people in nursing homes, to determine if in fact the level of protection is starting to [diminish]. And when it does get to a certain level, we will be prepared to give boosters to those people.”

Boosters may indeed have a place in protecting long-term care facility residents against SARS-CoV-2 infection, geriatricians told McKnight’s Clinical Daily. But the most helpful infection prevention action right now is ensuring widespread initial vaccinations in the LTC setting, they said. What’s more, data is lacking for booster efficacy, safety and dosing in this population, making prescribers wary, a physicians’ advocate told McKnight’s.

“We don’t have enough evidence there,” Christopher Laxton, CAE, executive director of AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, said. “We need the FDA, ACIP or CDC to provide enough science for us to be sure.”

In related news, the United Kingdom has ordered more COVID-19 doses for an expected fall 2022 booster campaign, according to The Guardian. The government’s vaccine advisers said in June that if boosters are greenlit, they should be given to people aged 50 years and older, the immunosuppressed and other at-risk adults.