A drop falls from a syringe after injecting a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to a health care worker at a hospital in Providence
When the delta version began to spread, Gina Welch decided not to take any risks: She went to a clinic to get her third, booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and told them it was her first shot.
The US government has not approved booster shots against the virus, saying it has yet to see evidence that they are necessary. But Welch and an untold number of other Americans have managed to get around them by taking advantage of the nation’s vaccine surplus and loose tracking of those who have been fully vaccinated.
Welch, a Maine graduate student majoring chemical engineering, said she has tracked scientific studies about COVID-19 and follows several virologists and epidemiologists on social media who have advocated for the booster.
“I’m going to follow these experts and I’m going to protect myself,” said Welch, 26, who has asthma and a liver condition. “I’m not going to wait another six months to a year for them to recommend a third dose.”
While Pfizer has said it plans to seek US Food and Drug Administration approval for booster shots, health officials say that for now, thorough vaccination is well protected.
Yet health care providers in the US have reported more than 900 people receiving their third dose of COVID-19 vaccines in a database run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an Associated Press review of data from the system found. Because reporting is voluntary, the full extent of people receiving a third dose is unknown. It is also unknown whether all of those people were actively trying to take the third dose as a booster.
“I don’t think anyone really has tracking” to know how widespread it is, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
An entry in the CDC database shows that a 52-year-old man received a third dose from a California pharmacy on July 14, saying he had never received one and by providing his passport instead of a driver’s license as identification. But when the pharmacy contacted the patient’s insurance provider, it was told it had received two doses in March.
In Virginia, a 39-year-old man received a third shot from a military provider on April 27 after he showed a vaccine card indicating he had only received one dose. Review of records turned up his previous vaccines. The patient told the provider that the time between his first and second doses was more than 21 days, “so he spoke with his provider, who authorized him to receive the third shot,” an entry said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said at a recent news briefing that he knows of residents who received a third dose using fake names, but neither his office nor the state health department could provide any evidence. Was.
Despite a lack of FDA approval, public health officials in San Francisco said Tuesday they would provide an additional dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for people who have received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson variety — adding it as a supplement. Referring to in, a booster instead.
Several studies are looking at booster shots for certain at-risk groups — people with weakened immune systems, adults over age 60, and health care workers. But the verdict is still out on whether the general population might need them, Dr. Michelle Barron, senior medical director for infection prevention at UCHealth, a nonprofit health care system based in Aurora, Colorado. He said the best data in favor of potential boosters is for people whose immune systems are compromised.
Israel is giving boosters to older adults and several countries, including Germany, Russia and the UK, have approved them for some people. The head of the World Health Organization recently urged wealthy countries to stop administering boosters to ensure vaccine doses are available in other countries where some people have received their first shots.
Will Klart, a 67-year-old patient service employee at a Missouri hospital, went to a local pharmacy in May to get a third dose. Clart said he had given all of his information to the pharmacist, but the pharmacist didn’t realize that Clart’s name was in the vaccine system until after the shot.
“It seemed like it worked. And there has also been discussion that eventually we would need a booster – mine was five or six months old and so I thought I would go ahead, this would give me a booster,” says Clart he said.
Ted Rall, a political cartoonist, explained in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he received the booster because of his history of lung problems, including asthma, swine flu, and recurrent attacks of bronchitis and pneumonia.
“I had made up my mind after reading a report that states were likely to toss out 26.2 million unused doses due to low demand. My decision had no impact on the policy, and I saved a vaccine dose from the garbage,” said Raal.
Welch, a graduate student from Maine, blamed those who have refused to receive the vaccine for political reasons. About 60% of eligible people in the US are fully vaccinated.
“Their absolute demands and screams for freedom are crushing our public health and our communal health.”
Nieberg is a core member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on secret issues.
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