We're five days away from the Biden Administration's target date to begin rolling out COVID-19 booster shots in the U.S., but those in the medical and public health communities continue to disagree on whether a third dose is necessary for most Americans.
This Friday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outside advisory committee will meet to review booster data submitted by Pfizer-BioNTech. Ahead of that meeting, the FDA released an analysis by Pfizer that makes the case for a third dose: according to data from Israel and the U.S., the vaccine's effectiveness against infection wanes about six to eight months after the second dose is administered. (Pfizer, of course, has a financial incentive to push for third doses.) Meanwhile, a recent, separate Israeli study —which has not yet been peer-reviewed—found that people over age 60 who received Pfizer boosters were more than 10 times less likely to get severe COVID-19 compared to those who had only two shots.
While the FDA authorized booster shots back in August for those with weakened immune systems, some top health officials argue that the extra doses simply aren't yet necessary for the wider population. A viewpoint from worldwide health officials published Monday in the Lancet asserted that "current evidence does not ... appear to show a need for boosting in the general population, in which [vaccine] efficacy against severe disease remains high."
As my colleague Alice Park reports, the commentary, which was signed by officials from the FDA and World Health Organization (WHO), escalated the tension over if and when booster shots should be given. Many in the public health community were surprised by the Biden Administration's August announcement that it planned to start widely distributing booster doses on Sept. 20, despite the fact that such a move had yet to be cleared by regulators. Since then, two FDA vaccine regulators, Dr. Philip Krause and Dr. Marion Gruber, said they would leave the agency this fall, citing Biden's booster campaign as one reason for their departure.
In addition to uncertainty over whether booster shots are safe and/or effective, there's an ethical concern about using the vaccine supply for a third shot when so much of the world remains totally unvaccinated. Earlier in the summer, the WHO called for a moratorium on boosters at least through the end of the year, until more people in low-resource countries can get vaccinated. Still, the U.S. and other world powers have long been stockpiling vaccine doses under the assumption that boosters would eventually be necessary, and it could be difficult to transfer those doses elsewhere. Either way, look for more news on the booster front in the coming days.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
About 456.7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of yesterday afternoon, of which more than 380.8 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 53.9% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
More than 225.7 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 3 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 4.6 million people have died. On September 14, there were 508,403 new cases and 8,528 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 4.5 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 41.3 million coronavirus cases as of 3 a.m. E.T. today. More than 663,900 people have died. On September 14, there were 143,675 new cases and 1,819 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Sept. 15, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
We've reached another somber pandemic milestone, 19 months in: 1 in 500 Americans has died of COVID-19, according to a special report from the Washington Post. As of this week, more than 663,000 Americans have succumbed to the virus. "We're kind of where we predicted we would be with completely uncontrolled spread of infection," Jeffrey D. Klausner, clinical professor of medicine, population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, told the Post.
The majority of Americans support certain public health steps to curb the coronavirus, according to a report out today from the Pew Research Center. Among its findings: 80% of U.S. adults are in favor of requiring masks for those traveling on airplanes or via other public transport, and 56% support vaccine mandates to attend sporting events or concerts. Most vaccinated adults said they would probably get a booster shot, and 54% predicted that the worst of the pandemic is still ahead. The majority of those surveyed (69%) acknowledged that pandemic restrictions hurt businesses and the economy "a lot," but 62% believed the public health benefits were worth the costs.
The U.S. will require new immigrants to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus beginning Oct. 1, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced yesterday. Most people who apply to become permanent residents of the country undergo a routine medical examination that also requires proof of inoculation against such diseases as measles, mumps, polio and hepatitis A and B.
Alaska's largest hospital is now rationing care as cases swell in the state, it announced yesterday. "While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help," physicians who practice at Providence Alaska Medical Center wrote in a letter to the public. The doctors noted that they feel an "ethical obligation to be transparent" about "the distressing reality of what is happening inside the walls of our hospital." According to the letter, patients seeking emergency care are waiting inside their cars for hours, and there may not be room for those who need to see, for example, cardiologists or neurosurgeons.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and New York University Langone Health have awarded nearly $470 million to fund nationwide research on COVID-19's long-term effects, they announced today. The money will be given to more than 100 researchers at over 30 institutions. "We know some people have had their lives completely upended by the major long-term effects of COVID-19," NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins said in a statement. "These studies will aim to determine the cause and find much needed answers to prevent this often-debilitating condition and help those who suffer move toward recovery."
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Angela Haupt and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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