The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a joint statement late Thursday saying that Americans who have been fully vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus “do not need a booster shot at this time.”
But the two federal health agencies also said that they “are prepared for booster doses if and when the science demonstrates that they are needed.”
According to the joint statement, the CDC, FDA, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) “are engaged in a science-based, rigorous process to consider whether or when a booster might be necessary.”
“We continue to review any new data as it becomes available and will keep the public informed,” the statement reads.
It comes after Pfizer’s chief scientific officer, Mikael Dolsten, said earlier in the day that the drugmaker plans to seek FDA authorization for a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine in August.
He cited early results of the company’s own studies that suggested a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine generated antibody levels that are 5- to 10-fold higher than after the second dose—thereby suggesting that a third dose may be more effective at neutralizing the CCP virus.
The CDC and FDA in their statement maintained that people who are currently fully vaccinated against COVID-19 “are protected from severe disease and death,” including from the more contagious Delta variant of the CCP virus.
“People who are not vaccinated remain at risk,” the statement reads. “Virtually all COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are among those who are unvaccinated.”
The agencies encourage Americans to “get vaccinated as soon as possible to protect themselves and their community.”
The Delta variant, first identified in India late last year, is highly contagious compared to prior strains, officials from multiple countries have said. It spread rapidly throughout India earlier this year before spreading to dozens of other countries.
According to recently updated estimates by the CDC, the Delta variant is the most dominant version of the CCP virus circulating in the United States over the two weeks ending July 3, at approximately 51.7 percent of all new CCP virus cases across the country.
Nearly 48 percent of the U.S. population is currently fully vaccinated.
Researchers have said it’s too early to say whether the Delta variant is more or less deadly than other variants of the virus.
