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CDC shifts the definition of what it means to be 'fully vaccinated'

The definition of what it means to be “fully vaccinated” is evolving even as the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has remained careful not to change it officially, reports AXIOS.

CDC officials have been balancing the job of convincing Americans, who’ve already had two doses, of the importance of boosters with getting many Americans, who still need their first doses, to get their shots at all.

“What we’re really working to do is pivot the language to make sure everyone is as up-to-date with their COVID-19 vaccines as they should be, based on when they got their last vaccine,” said CDC director Rochelle Walensky. “If you've recently had your second dose but you’re not eligible for a booster, you’re up-to-date,” she said. “If you’re eligible for a booster and you haven’t had it, you’re not up-to-date and you need to get your booster.”

 

This evolving language may well fit with vaccine makers’ expectations. Reuters reports Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla as saying he would recommend an annual COVID-19 vaccine over frequent booster shots.

This definition has potential ripple effects, as many cities around the US have begun vaccine mandates.

While some businesses, universities and others have begun to require the booster shots, most are using the CDC’s definition of “fully vaccinated”, which means a person has completed their primary series of COVID vaccines.

Canada’s top public health officials said they were re-examining the definition of fully vaccinated, the Globe and Mail reported.

“When I ask patients, ‘Are you fully vaccinated’ and they say ‘yes’, they may have had that second shot seven or eight months ago. So they are not really protected at the levels we need them to be protected,” Owais Durrani, an emergency medicine physician at University of Texas Health Science Centre, San Antonio, told Yahoo Finance.

 

KHN AXIOS article – The shifting definition of fully vaccinated (Open access)

 

Reuters article – Pfizer CEO sees annual COVID vaccine rather than frequent boosters (Open access)

 

The Globe & Mail article – Canada to re-examine definition of fully vaccinated once more people have had boosters (Open access)

 

Yahoo News – COVID-19: The definition of fully vaccinated ‘needs to be changed,’ doctor says (Open access)

 

CBS News – Transcript: Dr. Scott Gottlieb on "Face the Nation," January 23, 2022 (Open access)

 

See more from MedicalBrief archives:

 

Pfizer and Moderna cut COVID-19 infection risk by 91% in the fully vaccinated

 

CDC: Unvaccinated people are 11 times more likely to die of COVID

 

COVID-19 reinfection twice as likely in the unvaccinated — CDC study

 

 

 

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