Updated: Over 65? Roll Up Your Sleeve Again

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The Washington Post just reported that Pfizer and its partner-in-vax, BioNTech, plan to seek emergency authorization for a second CoV-2 booster for those of us 65 and older (you know who you are). It is intended to beef up immunity that wanes a bit a few months following the previous booster.

US data show protection against severe COVID illness is robust after the first booster, but falls somewhat from 91 percent effective in preventing severe illness to 78 percent effective over several months. Still, 78% protection is very good, but given how transmissible Omicron is, and the possible emergence of the Son-of-Omicron, which might be even more infectious and virulent, the idea behind a second booster is to offer people the chance to acquire the greatest level of protection possible. Not a bad idea.

The data that will be submitted to the FDA in support of the 2^nd booster probably will include real-world data collected in Israel, which has already rolled out the second shot, and has reduced infections and serious illness in people older than 60. This will likely not be the last CoV-2 vax we will see. Pfizer and BioNTech are also working on a vaccine more effective against all variants and provide more lasting protection. That remains on the horizon, so stay tuned.

For those of us 65 and older, we (at least the males in that demographic) remember draft cards. As we entered our later years, the draft card, if unburned, was replaced in our wallets with our AARP cards, and then accompanied with our Medicare cards. Now we need a new wallet pocket to accommodate our vax card.

On a personal note about cards, your maturing and slowing bloggeur admits favoring a certain grocery store in town because they still card him when he buys his bottles of 80 proof anti-vax remedies.

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Update: Three days after this was first posted, Moderna announced that it also has asked for FDA approval for a second booster. However, they ask that the booster be approved for all adults over 18, and not just for those over 65 as Pfizer/BioNTech have done. This request, like the one submitted by Pfizer/BioNTech is largely based on recent data from Israel. 

Moderna made a strategic decision to request approval for all adults in order to give the FDA flexibility in deciding which patients would be good candidates for the booster. In other words, they could decide that it also would benefit under 65 and so recommend.