The less than 3% of Americans who are severely immunocompromised should be able to get an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the federal government decided Thursday. People who are on medications or have diseases that suppress their immune system may not have gotten adequate protection from their earlier doses of COVID-19 vaccine and are more likely to mount a response to an additional dose, the Food and Drug Administration determined.
"Making the booster shots available to us is imperative," said Michele Nadeem-Baker, a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of blood cancer. "The immunocompromised community has felt forgotten This gives us hope that we have not been." A study in people with solid organ transplants, for instance, showed only about 15% had an immune response to the first dose and roughly half mounted one to a second dose. Later research found a quarter of those with no response to the first two doses responded to a third. Even those who had an antibody response had a lower one than those with normal immune systems. And a study published Wednesday confirmed the benefit of a third dose among transplant patients.
It's not clear how many of those infected after vaccination are transplant patients or otherwise immunocompromised, but anecdotally, doctors have reported that they make up a large percentage of those hospitalized with so-called breakthrough infections. “Today’s action allows doctors to boost immunity in certain immunocompromised individuals who need extra protection from COVID-19," Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s acting commissioner, said in a statement. "As we’ve previously stated, other individuals who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected and do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time."
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