U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNBC that the Biden administration is recommending Covid booster shots for most vaccinated Americans beginning on Sept. 20 in order to stay ahead of the virus.
“We put our heads together, the top public health and medical officials in the Department of Health and Human Services, and came to the judgement that starting booster shots at that eight month mark would be the prudent thing to do to stay ahead of this virus, and make sure people have and continue to have the protection from the vaccines that they’ve had over the last few months,” said Murthy.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory committee and the Food and Drug Administration still need to officially sign off on the plan before states can start administering third doses.
Murthy told “The News with Shepard Smith” that the administration’s strategy on booster shots was also about transparency.
“We are making plans now, because number one, you’ve got to plan ahead, but two, we wanted the public to know what we were seeing the data, in our effort to be transparent and open with the public,” said Murthy.
The U.S. health officials are basing their decision-making on new data that shows vaccine protection weakens over time. The vaccines were 92% effective against Covid infection, before the delta variant started spreading in the U.S, but the data shows protection has dropped to 64%.