September 20 can be the rollout date for Covid booster vaccine in US

US officials are sharing optimism that the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine for all adults in the country can begin starting September 20. The goal is set by President Joe Biden as Covid-19 cases continue to surge across America with highly transmissible Delta variants. The only wait for the rollout is authorization by US health agencies without whose green flag the booster dose will not be rolled out, officials clarified. 

During CBS’s Face The Nation program when Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked if the 20 September rollout date for booster shot is still in plans, he said, “In some respects, it is. We were hoping that we would get both the candidates, both products, Moderna and Pfizer, rolled out by the week of the 20th. It is conceivable that we will only have one of them out, but the other one will follow soon thereafter.”

Pfizer has already submitted its data and Moderna has started the process of data submission related to the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. 

Fauci continued, “We’re not going to do anything unless it gets the appropriate FDA regulatory approval, and then the recommendation from the [CDC] advisory committee.” He added that Moderna approval can be delayed by at least a few weeks. 

The country is ready to receive booster doses as almost all the new cases of coronavirus infection in the US are of Delta variant. Experts hope the surge can be clamped down through booster dose. The vaccines have been shown to provide protection against severe symptoms, hospitalization, and death in Delta variant cases. 

White House chief of staff Ron Klain shared the views of Dr. Fauci and said that while the September 20 rollout date is a projection but not a strict rule. He reiterated that booster rollout has always depended largely on authorization by FDA and CDC. “I think what we said was that we would be ready as of the 20th,” Klain said. “I would be absolutely clear, no one’s going to get boosters until the FDA says they’re approved until the CDC advisory committee makes a recommendation.”

Labor day holiday weekend travel concerns were raised by many health officials and experts that it may further increase the caseload. “As we head into Labor Day, we should all be concerned about history repeating itself. High or intense transmission around most of the country combined with population mobility with limited masking and social distancing has been a consistent predictor of major surges,” Dr. John Brownstein, a Boston Children’s Hospital epidemiologist.

The USA has fully vaccinated 53% of its population while 62% have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine. According to John Hopkins data, the US continues to lead in Covid-19 cases and deaths, with 39,908,072 confirmed infections and 648,121 known fatalities.