US coronavirus booster shots start, even as millions remain unvaccinated

The CDC earlier took the rare step of overruling advice from its own expert panel to make more Americans eligible for a third shot

Biden urged those eligible to ‘go get the booster’ and said he would get his own soon

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The US decision applies only to people originally vaccinated with shots made by Pfizer. Decisions on boosters for people who received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines are still to come. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:41am, 25 Sep 2021Updated: 7:41am, 25 Sep 2021

The US launched a campaign to offer boosters of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine to millions of Americans on Friday even as federal health officials stressed the real problem remains getting first shots to the unvaccinated.

“We will not boost our way out of this pandemic,” warned Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention – even though she took the rare step of overruling the advice of her own expert panel to make more people eligible for the booster.

The vast majority of Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations are among the unvaccinated, Walensky noted. And all three Covid-19 vaccines in the US offer strong protection against severe illness, hospitalisation and death despite the extra-contagious Delta variant that caused cases to soar. But immunity against milder infection appears to wane months after initial vaccination.

People anxious for another Pfizer dose lost no time rolling up their sleeves after Walensky ruled late Thursday on who was eligible: Americans 65 and older and others vulnerable because of underlying health problems or where they work and live – once they’re six months past their last dose.

Jen Peck, 52, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, qualified because of her job as an education maths and science consultant. She was vaccinated back in March but worries about unknowingly picking up and spreading an infection. She travels between rural schools where many students and teachers do not wear masks and the younger children can’t yet be vaccinated.