FDA to Authorize Third Vaccine Dose for Immunocompromised Patients

     The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is on the verge of amending its emergency use authorizations for both the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines to allow people with compromised immune systems to get the third dose, according to two sources who are familiar and say that the amendment could be done today. 

     In July, a panel of advisors to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) met and emphasized the necessity of extra doses of vaccine doses for immunocompromised adults, whose ineffective immune responses may continue to render them vulnerable to COVID, even after two vaccination shots. 

     The CDC, which estimates that 2.7% of adults in the US are immuno-compromised, was not specific on which types of patients would be covered under the expected FDA action.

     Usually, organ transplant recipients, patients undergoing cancer treatment, patients with HIV, and others are considered immuno-compromised patients.

     Organ transplant recipients, for example, must take medications to suppress their immune systems so that their bodies do not reject their new organs.

    At Johns Hopkins University, one small study of organ transplant recipients who were vaccinated found that the majority of them never developed COVID antibodies, while other immunocompromised patients developed only low levels of protection.

     In that study, however, a third vaccination dose provided a welcome increase in the antibody levels of immunocompromised patients.

 (Photo by: Darren McGee- Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo)