an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time,” Woodcock adds while noting that the agency was “actively engaged in a science-based, rigorous process with our federal partners to consider whether an additional dose may be needed in the future.”
Despite the authorization, many scientists argue that the immunocompromised population is too diverse to uniformly recommend additional shots of coronavirus vaccine, the Times reports.
READ: Is it Safe to Get a Third Vaccine Shot to Protect Against COVID?
Benefits for transplant patients
Studies do suggest that patients such as organ transplant recipients often show little immune response to the standard vaccine dosing schedule, and so they could benefit from a third jab. One recent study by Canadian researchers found that a third dose of the Moderna vaccine improved the immune response of people in that group, the Times reports.
Dr. Dorry Segev, from Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, says about half of transplant patients have no antibody response to the currently authorized vaccine dosage, the Times reports. His team studied 30 transplant patients who were vaccinated but had negative or low-positive antibody [blood] titers, which pointed to a poor response by their immune systems to the shots. After an additional shot, 14 of them had higher antibody titers.
Although the vast majority of Americans who have been vaccinated got Pfizer or Moderna shots, it is not yet clear how those with immune deficiencies who received Johnson & Johnson shots are to proceed, the Times says.
Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who worked with Johnson & Johnson as it developed its vaccine, says the FDA’s move to make third shots available to some with weakened immune systems makes sense.
For more information on COVID-19 and booster shots, visit the CDC.