Under the title "The Third Dose is Coming: Experts Support the Proposal to Combat the Delta Variant," the Alhurra website reported that amid urging from top U.S. officials on Thursday for millions of unvaccinated people to get vaccinated to protect themselves and the community from the rapidly spreading new variant, a committee of health experts advising the federal government expressed support for the idea of administering booster vaccine doses.
The Delta variant, first discovered in India, represents over 83% of the circulating cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Scientists found that individuals infected with the Delta strain carry a viral load over a thousand times higher than those infected with previous strains of the coronavirus, allowing the epidemic to spread quickly among unvaccinated individuals, as reported by The Washington Post.
The daily rate of COVID-19 cases has nearly quadrupled during July, increasing from about 13,000 cases a day at the beginning of the month to 43,243 cases now. The virus is spreading more rapidly across the South and Midwest, in states with low vaccination rates, and hospital officials in those areas report facing a new wave of infections dominated by the Delta variant.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters, "It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of, which I have seen in my 20-year career." She added, "The Delta variant is more aggressive and more transmissible than previously circulating strains."
Walensky remarked, "We are still at another pivotal moment of this pandemic, with cases rising again and some hospitals reaching capacity in certain areas." She continued, "We need to come together as one nation, united in our determination to protect the health of ourselves, our children, our communities, and our country, and our future with the tools available to us."
The White House announced an additional $1.6 billion in funding to enhance coronavirus testing and prevention in areas where people live without social distancing rules, such as prisons and homeless shelters. U.S. officials also announced $100 million in funding for rural health clinics in communities suffering from low vaccination rates, aiming to enhance education and outreach, and deployed rapid response teams in areas experiencing rising infections, including Missouri and Nevada.
In a related context, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) supports granting a third booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines to immunocompromised individuals; however, they stated they are awaiting regulatory action before issuing an official recommendation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The committee, made up of a group of infectious disease experts, expressed its support following the publication of four different studies that concluded most individuals who did not have an immune response after two doses of mRNA vaccines achieved a response after the third dose.
Countries, including Israel, which has one of the fastest vaccination campaigns in the world, have started administering the third dose to the elderly and those with weakened immune systems to enhance their protection against the pandemic. About 2.7% of adults in the United States are immunocompromised, according to the CDC, including organ transplant recipients and some cancer survivors and individuals with HIV.
ACIP member and pediatric infectious disease specialist at Stanford University, Grace Lee, stated that there is sufficient data indicating that an additional dose would be beneficial.
