February 28, 2024
I am writing to alert you to a significant recommendation issued by the CDC earlier today which affects you if you are 65 years old or older.
Earlier today, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided by a vote of 11-1 that Americans aged 65 and older “should” receive an additional dose of the latest Covid vaccine this spring if at least four months have elapsed since you received your last dose. Before now, persons with immunocompromised conditions were encouraged to get a second dose; this latest recommendation applies to older Americans who are not specifically immunocompromised.
A CDC recommendation means that those who are eligible for a second shot will have that additional dose covered by insurance. Eligible consumers should be able to get the additional dose within a day or two from pharmacies or health-care providers stocking the vaccines. There are no supply shortages, CDC officials said.
Presumably, if you have contracted Covid during the last four months, you have acquired a level of natural immunities that would make an additional dose unnecessary before next fall. The CDC release does not specifically mention that situation but I believe it stands to reason. If I determine that is not the case, I will distribute a follow-up letter to this one.
This will be the third year in a row that spring boosters will be offered. According to a CDC spokesperson, officials are hoping to see the coronavirus is moving in a direction that resembles the flu, with a clear season, “but I don’t think we are there yet,” said the spokesperson. Indeed, as I pointed out in my latest newsletter distributed yesterday, certain Southern states, including Alabama, are witnessing a spring surge, so the availability of a spring booster comes as welcome news.
As justification for its decision, the CDC pointed out that adults who received a fall dose last October and November accounted for just 4% of Covid-related hospitalizations between October and January 2024, whereas those who received a booster shot in the fall of 2022, but not the updated vaccine this fall, accounted for 25%. Altogether, adults 65 and older accounted for two-thirds of all hospitalizations related to Covid and those 75 and older accounted for nearly half. There are still roughly 20,000 people a week hospitalized for Covid-19 and about 2,000 deaths a week caused by the disease.
Even though the virus has continued to evolve, the CDC says the updated coronavirus vaccines continue to be effective against different circulating variants, such as JN.1, which started to dominate in the United States in January. Clinical studies indicate that the latest vaccines are 54% effective in preventing symptomatic infection, roughly the same efficacy rate as most annual flu vaccines.