Thursday, OHA reported that 12,696 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry on Oct. 13. Of that total, 1,071 were initial doses; 1,206 were second doses and 3,624 were third doses and booster doses. The remaining 6,760 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Oct. 13. The seven-day running average is now 10,301 doses per day. Oregon has now administered 3,144,034 doses of Pfizer Comirnaty, 1,926,449 doses of Moderna and 221,987 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of today, 2,779,073 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,563,481 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. These data are preliminary and subject to change. Updated vaccination data are provided on Oregon’s COVID-19 data dashboards and have been updated Thursday. Medical and public health experts determine when to recommend a booster. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will consider whether to recommend that individuals who were vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines should get booster doses. The decision to recommend a booster for people who received these vaccines depends on how significant the decrease in immunity is for each vaccine. Like the Pfizer vaccine, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) may decide that only certain groups of people need a booster. Immunity may be waning more quickly in some people than others. This could mean that the people who are losing immunity should be given a booster to boost their immunity. VRBPAC members will hear presentations of data from the companies that manufacture these vaccines. They will also consider the FDA’s own analysis of the data. They will look at data that show whether there are significant decreases in immunity in people who have received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine individually, and whether a booster dose significantly boosts their immunity; then, decisions will be made separately for each vaccine. Once the VRBPAC decides, the committee will make a recommendation to the FDA. If the FDA decides to recommend boosters, the decision will be considered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The ACIP is an independent panel of medical and public health experts. Later this month, the VRBPAC will also consider whether the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine should be granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for children who are five through 11 years of age. The same process will be used to determine whether this vaccine should be recommended for children. You can read more about this in Oregon Vaccine News.
