Dr. Fauci Says These People Need a Booster Now

The FDA is expected to announce that people who are immunocompromised—perhaps they've had an organ transplant, for example, or are on steroids—qualify for a COVID vaccine booster shot. (Ask your doctor if you are curious.) So will we all need one eventually? Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the President and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared on CBS This Morning to weigh in, and also addressed the concerns of parents and pregnant women. Read on for five pieces of life-saving advice—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You Have "Long" COVID and May Not Even Know It.

A booster shot for everyone? "It is likely that that will happen at some time in the future because …we're already starting to see indications in some sectors about a diminution over time, that's durability," said Dr. Fauci. "We don't feel at this particular point that apart from the immune compromised, we don't feel we need to give boosters right now. But importantly, we are following this in real time, literally on a weekly and monthly basis, we're following cohorts of individuals, elderly, younger individuals, people in nursing homes to determine if in fact the level of protection is starting to attenuate. And when it does get to a certain level, we will be prepared to give boosts just to those people."6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

"It is preferable that you go with the same brand," said Dr. Fauci of boosters. "If you get Moderna, get Moderna. If Pfizer, Pfizer, J&J….you will be hearing instructions about that from the FDA through the CDC and the advisory committee on immunization practices. So there will be guidance when that time occurs."

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The CDC recently found that there's no increased risk for people who are pregnant to get the vaccine. "The data are really very, very strong," said Dr. Fauci. "If you look at the tens and tens of thousands of pregnant women who have gotten vaccinated, there's no safety signal of concern at all. Balanced that against the fact that we absolutely know that when pregnant women who are unvaccinated, when those individuals get COVID-19, it is very detrimental, not only to the woman herself, but to the fetus. So that's the reason why the recommendation has gone from, could get vaccinated, to should get vaccinated."

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"We have been doing the studies now at the NIH together with the pharmaceutical, looking at the safety and the immunogenicity, or the ability of the vaccine to induce an appropriate response in the children," said Dr. Fauci. "And we're doing that in what's called an age de-escalation way, doing 11 to nine, nine to six, six to two, and then six months to two years. And we're getting good data on that right now. Ultimately it will be a regulatory decision by the FDA, which will then go on to a recommendation from the advisory committee on immunization practices. I hope that's within a reasonable period of time, this fall, so that we can get those kids protected. But in the meantime, what you want to do, what we're recommending is that in the school system, you surround the children with people who are vaccinated, who are eligible to be vaccinated. And that's the reason why we want to see as many as possible of the teachers and the personnel in the school to be vaccinated. Children who are old enough and are eligible to get vaccinated, should get vaccinated. And in the other situation, which you mentioned, the children who are not yet eligible, that's the reason why we want masking in the school for everyone vaccinated or not, because we don't want to keep the children out of school. We know the deleterious effects of keeping children away from physical presence in the school, mental, social development and things like that. So we've got to balance things, and that's the reason why we feel strongly. We should be masking people to protect the children."

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Follow Fauci's fundamentals and help end this pandemic, no matter where you live—get vaccinated ASAP; if you live in an area with low vaccination rates, wear an N95 face mask, don't travel, social distance, avoid large crowds, don't go indoors with people you're not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, and to protect your life and the lives of others, don't visit any of these 35 Places You're Most Likely to Catch COVID.