LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Big news about COVID-19 vaccine boosters leads to lots of confusion and questions, so WDRB News went straight to one of the White House's top doctors to get some answers.
Who exactly is eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot?
Dr. Bechara Choucair, White House Vaccinations coordinator: "If you've taken Moderna or Pfizer and your second shot was six months or more from today, you're eligible if you're 65 and older, If you're 18-64 and have an underlying medical condition like heart disease, diabetes, obesity or if you're 18-64 but you're a frontline essential worker... you're a healthcare worker, you're a grocery store clerk, you're a firefighter or you live in at homeless shelter.”
What about people who got the one shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine?
Choucair: “You're eligible for a booster if your shot was two months or more from today. So all folks who have taken J&J… two months or more you're eligible for a booster shot."
What led to the decision to allow the mixing of vaccines?
Choucair: “They have reviewed the data. We have a bunch of studies out there from the NIH, from manufacturers and then that's where the CDC landed... that mix and match is good. But we know that probably most people will end up landing on getting a booster shot the same as the primary series that they've gotten.”
Why have the recommendations changed so often and so quickly?
Choucair: "We have outstanding researchers, and scientists and doctors who are regularly reviewing the data and keeping the public updated and when we need to evolve and update guidelines that's what they do. And that's I think where we need to have the full trust in the gold standard process that we have in place between the FDA and CDC. Nothing gets approved if doesn’t meet the high bar standards.”
If people are hesitant or have concerns about the vaccines — should they reach out to their primary care doctor?
Choucair: "There are still a lot of people who have a lot of questions about the vaccines and we want to make sure that these folks are getting facts, they're getting answers to their questions and your doctor is a great source for that. So if you have questions, please talk to your doctor."
Some have concerns about how quickly the vaccines were developed and rolled out. Why are you so confident in the safety of the vaccines?
Choucair: "I get this question regularly… were these vaccines developed too fast? Are they safe? And here's what I tell people. The platform on which these two m-rna vaccines were developed has been in the making for a couple of decades. We have researchers’ and scientists’ work on that platform for a couple of decades so when we had this new virus come out, we were able to adapt that platform and get it to be a vaccine for this new virus that we have. And it’s gone through clinical trials, we have now billions of shots have been administered across the world. Here in the United States we’ve administered more than 400 million shots, we have systems in place to track side effects, whether they’re mild side effects or serious side effects, and we’re very confident with the safety of these vaccines and with the time that it took to get them developed. There were no corners cut.”
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