According to a CNN report, vaccine experts claim that young, healthy individuals do not require another booster to fight COVID-19.
Data from the CDC show that since its release in September, the bivalent booster’s effectiveness has been rather low.
Additionally, they claimed that patients under the age of 65 have not “overwhelmed” hospitals either, most of those hospitalized with COVID complications being elderly people.
More precisely, the report pointed out that “Nationally, only about 16 percent of the population has gotten it, and rates are especially low for those under 65.”
According to medical professionals at Clalit Health Services, the biggest healthcare provider in Israel, the current COVID-19 strains are weak enough not to affect young people too much, even without the help of booster vaccines.
In an interview with CNN, Dr. Ran Balicer, Israel’s COVID-19 National Expert Advisory Panel’s chairman, stressed that refusing the vaccine when the deadly Delta variant was rampaging was indeed “not [a] responsible” decision.
Since then, however, young adults’ health has changed a lot, according to Balicer.
“I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I think when you are under 65 and healthy, it is a much more complex question, and I think that is where individual risk assessment and personal preferences come into play,” he mentioned.
Since the latest booster has become available, the CDC reports that about 12 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States have involved individuals under the age of 65.
Despite the drop in fatalities, the CDC has now released a detailed report of death rates and vaccination status for the months of September- December.
It proved that those who had received the primary vaccine and a booster shot had greater protection than those who had not.
CDC’s senior epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Link-Gelles advises adults to get the booster shot, calling it a “no brainer.”
Dr. Ruth Link-Gelles told CNN that “We aren’t surprised, and we are happy to see that hospitals are not filling up [with people under 65.] But we still see occasionally healthy younger adults end up in the hospital. And to me, it is a no-brainer if I can take 5 minutes, pop into my local pharmacy and get a shot. There are people under the age of 65 that are still dying of COVID-19, (and) any death in an unvaccinated or under vaccinated person is potentially preventable had that person gotten their booster.”
Balicer also admitted to skipping the most recent booster himself, due to the fact that the current strain was so mild.
“Because I was vaccinated before, I knew my risk of severe morbidity is very low [even without the booster.] And I know that the protection from infection that I’ll get from the additional booster will be short term – a few months,” he told the same publication.
