California takes action on boosters
LOS ANGELES — With confusion mounting over who is eligible for COVID19 booster shots, California health officials updated the state’s guidelines Tuesday to say that essentially all adults are recommended to get the additional vaccinations.
The move by the California Department of Public Health could be a precursor to federal officials taking similar action by the end of this week. There is increasing expectation that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will officially make booster shots available to all fully vaccinated adults, as long as enough time has passed since receiving their initial vaccination series.
California’s move echoes recent efforts undertaken in places such as New York City, Colorado and New Mexico, as some health officials nationwide have voiced alarm at the sluggish booster uptake and expressed worry about a potential fifth COVID-19 surge that could strike this winter. Average daily coronavirus cases nationwide have risen by 14% over the last week, and average new daily COVID-19 hospital admissions are up by 5%.
The problem, some experts say, has been an overly complicated set of guidelines issued by the CDC weeks ago on who are eligible for boosters. Some experts say they have been so confusing that many people who most need those extra shots — the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions — haven’t gotten them.
Some have hit roadblocks in their efforts to get boosters. Others have found it difficult to square the state’s stance with the seemingly stricter federal guidelines still listed on the websites of many pharmacies operated by national chains.
The complex messaging led California to embark on its clearest effort yet to clear up confusion on who should get the booster shots. As Gov. Gavin New
som announced at a news conference Tuesday in Kings County in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the least-vaccinated areas of the state, “Anyone who wants a booster can get a booster shot.”
“If you have been vaccinated, and it’s been six months, now you can get a booster shot [if you’re] 18 and over,” Newsom told reporters at Avenal High School.
“This virus, this disease is not taking the winter off,” the governor added. “Boosters are important to deal with waning immunity and important to help us get through this winter.”
But it could take several more days before federal agencies revise their guidelines and there’s widespread easing of the confusion over booster eligibility.
The state’s new recommendations came a week after the state health officer and director of public health, Dr. Tomás Aragón, directed vaccine clinics in a letter to not turn away any adult patients seeking a booster, as long as at least two months have passed since they received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine or they’re six months removed from their second dose of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.
That led some counties — including Los Angeles, Ventura, San Francisco and Santa Clara — to update their local guidelines to make clear just how readily available boosters truly are. But others have
not, and it remains unclear how many residents are aware of the changes.
Bria Dotson of Encino entered the Balboa Sports Complex on Tuesday afternoon not knowing whether she would be able to receive the booster.
“If they turn me away, I’ll just schedule it,” said Dotson, who was seeking the additional dose because she works around others in an office five days a week.
For many, the stumbling block is the criteria listed to qualify for a booster shot when trying to book an appointment. Some have said they don’t qualify for any of the categories.
California’s MyTurn.ca.gov website, for instance, as of Tuesday night still asked whether someone looking to schedule an appointment is a resident of a long-term care facility like a nursing home, at high risk for COVID-19 complications, at high risk for COVID-19 exposure due to occupation or institutional setting or at increased risk of social inequities.
If people answer “no,” the website says they’re not currently eligible.
However, there’s one category for which virtually all adults qualified, according to the permissive interpretation articulated recently by health officials across California.
Under this interpretation, essentially all adults were eligible because they were “at high risk for COVID-19 exposure due to occupation or institutional setting.”