Where I live, pharmacies are advertising that they have boosters available for walk-ins, so I imagine there is plenty of supply. I got my vaccine in March, but it was J&J. One thing I find a bit puzzling about all of this is that Pfizer and Moderna were supposed to be more effective than J&J, yet there is no booster for J&J vax recipients at this time. Not sure if they’ll eventually recommend mixing the J&J vax with am mRNA booster or not. Guess I’ll wait and see.
FDA Approves Booster Shot for People with Weakened Immune Systems
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Chuckanut
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I believe they are still studying the long term strength of the JnJ vaccine. It did come along a few months later than the mRNA vaccines so they need to wait to get more data in the 6+ month range.
Ian S
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I'd be very surprised if a booster isn't needed for the J&J vaccine. According to https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid-19-booster the J&J needs more real world US data which should start to come within a month or so. The company claims its vaccine is effective against Delta but a recent study suggests otherwise. Also, because the J&J vaccine relies on a harmless adenovirus to get it into cells, there's the possibility that the body may generate antibodies against that adenovirus which could lessen the effectiveness of a booster using the same J&J vaccine. So maybe the recommendation will be to get one of the mRNA vaccines as a booster for the J&J. Who knows, the jury is still out.
REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
Interesting NPR article today.
Highly Vaccinated Israel Is Seeing A Dramatic Surge In New COVID Cases. Here's Why
Summary:
1. Immunity from the vaccine dips over time.
2. The delta variant broke through the vaccine's waning protection.
3. If you get infected, being vaccinated helps.
4. Israel's high vaccination rate isn't high enough.
5. Vaccinations are key, but they are not enough.
6. Booster shots offer more protection — if you are one of the world's lucky few to get them.
Highly Vaccinated Israel Is Seeing A Dramatic Surge In New COVID Cases. Here's Why
Summary:
1. Immunity from the vaccine dips over time.
2. The delta variant broke through the vaccine's waning protection.
3. If you get infected, being vaccinated helps.
4. Israel's high vaccination rate isn't high enough.
5. Vaccinations are key, but they are not enough.
6. Booster shots offer more protection — if you are one of the world's lucky few to get them.
Retch The Grate
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San Francisco is giving supplemental (not booster heh) vaccinations to J&J recipients. I went and got a shot of Moderna (went with Moderna over Pfizer because of studies showing it performing better against Delta, though obv hard to extrapolate two dose mRNA dosing treatments vs my relatively unstudied J&J followed much later by M) today, 4.5 months after my J&J shot was administered. Super happy because my original desire in 2020 when they announced the various vaccines was to get one each of an mRNA and an adenovirus vaccine since supposedly (anecdotal articles research only) the mRNA have better antibody response and the adenovirus ones have better B and T-cell response.
Interesting. Is that happening at pharmacies or public health departments or all of the above?
Retch The Grate
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I got it at Zuckerberg SF General, AITC was also giving appointments for it. Not sure if pharmacies were doing it or not.
The UK is starting on a new survey this week to collect data to help decide how “deep” they should go with their booster program. They have already announced that boosters will be offered to the clinically vulnerable plus everyone over age 50.
We are seeing over 30k PCR positive cases every day and have been for the past few weeks. They are going to offer 2 antibody test kits and recruit 8k volunteers per day from those that test positive for Covid. They will be asked to do the first antibodies test immediately and the 2nd 28 days later. The aim is to measure the increase in antibodies over that time frame after testing positive. They should capture a whole range of scenarios because the current situation is as follows.
94% of the adult population already have Covid antibodies in their system.
88% of over 16s have had 1 vaccine dose
76% have had 2 doses
Over 200k doses are being administered per day so some of the volunteers will receive their first or 2nd dose after testing positive.
We are seeing over 30k PCR positive cases every day and have been for the past few weeks. They are going to offer 2 antibody test kits and recruit 8k volunteers per day from those that test positive for Covid. They will be asked to do the first antibodies test immediately and the 2nd 28 days later. The aim is to measure the increase in antibodies over that time frame after testing positive. They should capture a whole range of scenarios because the current situation is as follows.
94% of the adult population already have Covid antibodies in their system.
88% of over 16s have had 1 vaccine dose
76% have had 2 doses
Over 200k doses are being administered per day so some of the volunteers will receive their first or 2nd dose after testing positive.
harllee
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Alan, so in the UK 94% of adults already have Covid antibodies but you are still getting a lot of new Covid cases. Does this mean there is no "herd immunity" for Covid?
Possibly no absolute herd immunity. This is one of the fact finding targets that the new testing survey will be looking to answer. How many of the newly infected people already have antibodies in their blood, and what levels and what types are there? Remember that antibodies are only 1 aspect of immunity.
When I was randomly selected and did my home antibody test a couple of months back it showed the levels of 2 types of antibodies with 2 horizontal lines, the brightness of the line indicating how much of each type was present (short-lived and long-lasting antibodies).
Thousands of NHS staff that are taking part in the "Siren" trial give blood samples every 2 weeks. The Siren trial has been running over a year, since June 2020, and has been looking at 50,000 healthcare workers who have had Covid.
anethum
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A booster Pfizer dose significantly lowers risk of infection in seniors, according to new Israeli data.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/23/covid-delta-variant-live-updates/ (a free article)
"A study by the Israeli Health Ministry found that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provided four times as much protection against infection as two doses in people 60 and older."
"The level of protection was five to six times higher against serious illness and hospitalization, according to the study published Sunday, which looked at protection provided 10 days after a third dose."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/23/covid-delta-variant-live-updates/ (a free article)
"A study by the Israeli Health Ministry found that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provided four times as much protection against infection as two doses in people 60 and older."
"The level of protection was five to six times higher against serious illness and hospitalization, according to the study published Sunday, which looked at protection provided 10 days after a third dose."
Ronstar
Moderator Emeritus
SIL has had covid and vaccine, and has been recently diagnosed with early stage Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. People with CLL have a lesser chance of having Covid antibodies.
Not sure if SIL has been checked for antibodies yet, but she has cut all contact with people - especially those not vaccinated.
She is being monitored without any cancer treatment at this time, and it will be interesting to see what her antibodies are if any, and when/whether she gets a covid vaccine booster.
Not sure if SIL has been checked for antibodies yet, but she has cut all contact with people - especially those not vaccinated.
She is being monitored without any cancer treatment at this time, and it will be interesting to see what her antibodies are if any, and when/whether she gets a covid vaccine booster.
So sorry to hear about your SIL.
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Don’t forget about children. They are a large part of a population, and in the UK under 16 not eligible for vax either.
So looking at just the % of adults with antibodies does not give you a good enough picture. It has to be everybody.
Still possible that herd immunity is elusive.
I only mentioned the 94% of adults having antibodies to illustrate how interesting the antibodies tests are going to be in this new survey as the antibody tests will be almost 100% on people over age 16 since that is where the vast majority of new infections are.
Someone else asked the question about herd immunity and that term is not being discussed at any of the scientific briefings here.
audreyh1
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I was mainly responding to harllee who was asking whether that meant herd immunity.
So I see - thanks.
Chuckanut
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Some news on the J&J shot as a booster. A decision on this seems to be getting close.
https://www.jnj.com/johnson-johnson...ort-boosting-its-single-shot-covid-19-vaccine
https://www.jnj.com/johnson-johnson...ort-boosting-its-single-shot-covid-19-vaccine
Ian S
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Latest news has the booster shot for Covid moved up to six months! I can get mine now if that's true.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nichol...t-6-months-not-8-report-says/?sh=577e1988411e
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nichol...t-6-months-not-8-report-says/?sh=577e1988411e
harllee
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Wow I can get mine now too, if 6 months is what the FDA/CDC approve. I hope there is not the mad rush to get the boosters like there was to get the initial shots. Maybe things will be more organized.
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
So many rumors swirling every day!
I guess we’ll see what they finally announce.
Some interesting discussions over on Twitter where people are falling all over themselves about how UK hospitalization numbers are so much better (less bad) than US because UK waited a much longer time between doses.
But if ~90% of US hospitalizations are unvaccinated people, how could dose timing have anything to do with it? Not.
I guess we’ll see what they finally announce.
Some interesting discussions over on Twitter where people are falling all over themselves about how UK hospitalization numbers are so much better (less bad) than US because UK waited a much longer time between doses.
But if ~90% of US hospitalizations are unvaccinated people, how could dose timing have anything to do with it? Not.
Popeye
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Whatever happened to the idea of tweaking the vaccines to better handle the variants? I haven’t seen anything on that in some time.
I’d be curious about that too. It seems they’d want to tweak the formula a bit with the hopes it works against any future variants.
As for boosters, I read - on reuters I think - that the US is aiming for mid September to allow a 3rd booster shot for those that had their 2nd dose six months back. Not sure about any age restrictions.
As for Israel, they are now allowing a 3rd shot for anyone over 30 and had their 2nd shot five months back.
Since I’m out and about, I look forward to getting the booster once available.
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