The US Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve a booster injection for immunosuppressed individuals, commonly known as the third COVID-19 vaccination dose.
FDA is expected to amend the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines' emergency use authorizations on Thursday, allowing immunocompromised patients to get the third dosage.
This follows the trial findings, reported by Science Times, where transplant patients were given a third dosage of the COVID-19 vaccination, which indicated that the extra injection offered increased protection.
COVID-19 vaccination clearances are likely to alter, but only for immunocompromised persons, not the overall vaccinated population.
A dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is administered to a staff member at the Ararat Nursing Facility in the Mission Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 7, 2021, in Los Angeles, California.
Booster Shots Needed for Immunocompromised Patients
Bloomberg said that the FDA might give the third COVID-19 vaccination injection for immunocompromised people a go signal. Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination clearances are anticipated to be changed to meet the modification. CDC said in the same Bloomberg report that they will also explore the idea of giving booster injections to those who are immunocompromised.
Debates on COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shot
The Verge said that experts, government authorities, and vaccine producers have argued whether a third COVID-19 vaccination injection or booster is necessary.
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Pfizer and Moderna, for example, have long pushed for the necessity for a booster injection, claiming that the extra dose can give greater protection against the coronavirus.
Despite these claims, health professionals and regulators, including Dr. Anthony Fauci per WFLA, have previously said that booster injections are not required. The risk of more significant side effects is one of the grounds made against a COVID-19 booster injection.
According to MarketWatch, World Health Organization (WHO) has recently blasted nations that require individuals to get booster injections. The WHO suggested that the primary priority should be to ensure that all countries have equal access to COVID-19 vaccinations.
Given the modifications anticipated for Pfizer and Moderna vaccine approvals, regulators are going to change their tune on the issue, at least as far as immunocompromised people are concerned. It needs to be seen whether this holds true for the whole vaccinated population.
Booster Shot Benefits for Transplant Patients
University Health Network in Toronto, Canada, studied the effects of a third dosage of the COVID-19 vaccination on transplant patients. Both the FDA and Canadian regulators have been informed of the findings of this research.
More than 100 transplant patients took part in the trial. A study titled "Antibody Response After a Third Dose of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Kidney Transplant Recipients With Minimal Serologic Response to 2 Doses" states that some transplant recipients received a third Moderna vaccination months after their second dosage. Instead, the others were given a placebo injection.
According to another research titled "Antibody Response to 2-Dose SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine Series in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients," just 54% of 658 transplant recipients who got two doses of an mRNA vaccine produced antibodies to protect them against the coronavirus.
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