CDC Advisory Panel Recommends COVID Booster Shots
ATLANTA — A panel advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy on Wednesday advanced a proposal that people aged 65 and older should get an additional vaccine shot against the coronavirus this spring.
If, as expected, the panel’s recommendation is approved by CDC Director Mandy Cohen, it will mark the third year in a row that spring boosters will be available to people at a high risk of suffering major complications if they contract the virus.
At present, the number of COVID-19 cases across the United States appears to be leveling off. Staffers who briefed members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Wednesday said cases appear to have peaked around Christmas.
They noted, however, that about 20,000 people a week are still being hospitalized for COVID-19 and that the virus is responsible for roughly 2,000 deaths a week.
The recommendation, which was approved by a vote of 11 to one (there was also one abstention), is that people 65 or older who have had a COVID-19 shot in the past year should get a second shot this spring, so long as at least four months have passed since the earlier immunization.
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