what a person should consider when weighing a second booster.
Meanwhile, another surge of coronavirus cases in Europe is being driven by the highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.2. And just this week, BA.2 became the dominant variant in the United States, where it is now responsible for nearly 55% of all cases.
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To date, one in 75 Americans aged 65 or older has died of COVID-19, accounting for three-fourths of U.S. deaths from the virus, CDC data show. More than 33 million (over two-thirds) of people in that age group have a first booster and would be eligible for a second, the Times said.
Opinions about second boosters for older adults vary in the wider scientific community.
“I am not persuaded there is substantial waning of protection against severe disease after the third dose,” Dr. Philip Krause, a former senior regulator at the FDA, told the Times.
But while healthy younger people with one booster are protected at the moment, older people “should probably start receiving fourth shots now,” Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor and medical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, told the newspaper.
The fact that officials approved, but didn’t recommend, a second booster could frustrate the public, according to Dr. Judith Aberg, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.
Approving a second booster without meetings of the FDA and CDC advisory panels — as happened with the first boosters — could also draw criticism, another expert suggested.
“This is a complex decision that involves a pretty deep dive, and I think it would really benefit from public discussion,” Dr. Jesse Goodman, a former chief scientist at the FDA, told the Times. “I would not want to see an advisory committee skipped on this.”