As the U.S. Sees Progress in Fighting the Pandemic, Confusion Over Booster Shots Rises

After months of increasing cases of COVID-19, accompanied by rises in associated hospitalizations and deaths, data amassed from state and local health departments by The New York Times indicate that the country may have turned a corner in its fight against COVID-19. From September 22 to October 5, new infections were down to approximately 102,000 per day while deaths fell 22% compared with the previous 2-week period. That good news comes simultaneously with ongoing confusion as to which patients should be getting a booster dose of which COVID-19 vaccine. Urgent care providers would be wise to check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines regularly to ensure they’re able to offer additional doses to patients who would benefit from them. As of this writing, the CDC “recommends that people with moderately to severely compromised immune systems receive an additional dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine at least 28 days after a second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.” Most recently, Medscape reported on a pair of studies indicating that immunity for patients who received the Pfizer vaccine might start waning as soon as 2 months postvaccination.