CDC Says All 18-Plus ‘Should’ Get COVID-19 Boosters Due To Omicron

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US|November 29, 2021·11:47pm

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday evening (Nov. 29) strengthened its COVID-19 booster shot recommendations to say that everyone 18 and older who have received their primary vaccine regimen “should” get a booster shot in light of the Omicron variant, a potentially more contagious variant that was identified in South Africa as recently as last week and has since been detected in several other countries, including Canada. CDC had previously only said those 18 and up “could” get the booster.

Omicron has shown the importance of both initial vaccination and boosters, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement on Monday. “Early data from South Africa suggest increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, and scientists in the United States and around the world are urgently examining vaccine effectiveness related to this variant,” Walensky said.

Before Monday, CDC had said that people 18 and older “could” get the booster shot six months after receiving the primary two-dose mRNA regimen from Pfizer or Moderna, or two months after receiving the single-dose adenovirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

CDC on Monday updated its recommendations without the input of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which typically advises CDC on vaccine recommendations.

During ACIP’s Nov. 19 meeting to discuss boosters for the general population, ACIP had recommended people ages 50 and older “should” get the third shot and that people 18 and older could get a booster, but CDC subsequently had said that population could get the shot. That was before the Omicron variant emerged.

During the Nov. 19 meeting, some of the advisory committee members came out against using the word “should,” saying that it could lead to vaccine booster mandates that aren’t supported by data.

“[This could] make people feel that they haven’t done the right thing,” ACIP member Sarah Long, professor of pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine, said at the time. “If they have looked at the data or if they have considered it and decided they are going to mitigate and they don’t feel they need a booster right now … it’s hazardous for us to make that kind of substantial change in the last five minutes.”

Though the Omicron variant has yet to be identified in the United States, the White House is already working with vaccine makers and with FDA and CDC to prepare for the quick development and authorization of Omicron-specific vaccines and boosters, should they be needed.

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