MORGANTOWN – COVID-19 Czar Clay Marsh passed along the news on Tuesday that the FDA has authorized a second booster dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for people age 50 and up who are at least four months past their prior dose of any authorized vaccine.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is expected to follow suit soon, he said, and that’s good news in light of the BA.2 variant surge.
The United Kingdom is seeing an increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the spread of the BA.2 omicron variant, he said, and Israel is also seeing cases grow.
But Israel has seen a 78% reductions in deaths for those age 60 and up who’ve had a second booster, he said.
There are still only 12 documented cases of BA.2 in West Virginia, he said, but it’s now the dominant variant nationally and has a predilection for older people and children.
The FDA also announced on Tuesday that it’s authorized a second Pfizer booster dose for people age 12 and up with certain kinds of immunocompromise and a second Moderna booster for those age 18 and up with the same immunocompromise conditions. In both cases, it’s once again four months after the initial booster.
The FDA said, “Current evidence suggests some waning of protection over time against serious outcomes from COVID-19 in older and immunocompromised individuals. Based on an analysis of emerging data, a second booster dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine could help increase protection levels for these higher-risk individuals.”
The FDA made no announcements regarding the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Marsh said that while the J&J vaccines initially appeared to be less effective than the other two, it seems to have a longer potency.
The state’s numbers continue to improve: active cases dropped to 376; hospitalizations stood at 161 with 50 in ICUs and 18 on ventilators.
Justice was asked when he plans to lift the state of emergency declared at the beginning of the pandemic. It was said that all neighboring states but Kentucky have lifted or allowed their states of emergency to expire, while Kentucky’s will expire April 14.
Justice said he wants to continue West Virginia’s in order to continue receiving federal dollars. “These dollars are phenomenally important to our state. We’re going to continue to watch it, and when we can we’ll remove it.”
The panel also took a question on the once much-discussed concept of herd immunity.
For COVID, Marsh said, the challenge is that it constantly adapts and changes and new variants get stronger and more infectious. So the number of people needed to prevent the spread depends on the infectiousness of the variant and the potency of the person’s immune system.
What we do know, he said, is that the vaccines work, and because their potency wanes, a second booster for those age 50 and up will save lives.
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