Adults who want to can now receive booster doses in the US.

From this Friday the adults who want to can receive the booster dose of the vaccines against the COVID-19 of Pfizer and Moderna in USA, after they were approved by the country’s health authorities.

The last missing step was taken on Friday afternoon by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English), Rochelle Walensky, who authorized the booster doses of these pharmaceuticals for those over 18 years of age.

Walenksy’s go-ahead came after a scientific committee advising the CDC approved hours earlier and unanimously recommending the administration of the third dose of Pfizer and Moderna to all adults.

In a statement, the CDC director noted that the committee approved this recommendation after “a fundamental scientific evaluation” and an examination of the current situation of the pandemic, the latest data on the effectiveness of vaccines over time and the information about your safety.

“Booster doses have shown the ability to safely increase people’s protection against contagion and a severe course (of the disease); and they are an important public health tool to strengthen our defenses against the virus as we enter winter break, ”Walensky said.

Six months after the second

The CDC recommends that adults receive the third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines six months after the second.

Prior to their meeting, scientists from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent body of the CDC, had advised the third dose for all adults, and especially emphasized that everyone over 50 years of age They “should” receive it.

Within the vaccine approval process that consists of several steps, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, in English) had earlier this Friday authorized the booster dose of Pfizer and Moderna for emergency use in people over 18 years of age.

Until now, the US health authorities have approved the use of this third dose of Pfizer and Moderna for people over 65, as well as adults with medical problems or high risk of contracting the disease.

J&J booster dose approved before

In the case of the single-dose serum from Johnson & Johnson (J&J, Janssen, United States had already given the green light to a booster vaccine two months after the initial injection for all those of legal age.

Pfizer and Moderna preparations use messenger-RNA technology, unlike Janssen, which has been developed through an adenovirus.

Pending the federal decision, several states in the country had already allowed the administration of these booster doses for the adult population for weeks.

The average number of daily infections has rebounded slightly in the State. in recent weeks and is now in 83,000 cases, while the number of deaths maintains its progressive decline and is around 1,000.

The rise in cases comes at a time when there are fears that infections will grow around the Thanksgiving holiday next week, the time of year when the most travel is recorded in the United States.

This is officially the country hardest hit by COVID-19 with more than 47.6 million infections and more than 770,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.