Do you need a booster shot to be ‘fully vaccinated’ against COVID? What does ‘up to date’ mean? – CNET

"Fully vaccinated" won't likely mean three shots, but officials are now avoiding the term altogether.

As the omicron variant changes the landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is moving away from using the phrase "fully vaccinated," even if a person has received a booster shot.

"We're using the terminology 'keeping your vaccinations up to date' rather than ... 'fully vaccinated,'" Fauci said at a National Institutes of Health presentation on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported. "Right now, optimal protection is with a third shot of an mRNA or a second shot of a J&J." The mRNA vaccines are Moderna and Pfizer.

As of Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention'sCOVID-19 web pageuses the term "up to date" in regard to reaching optimal vaccine protection.

Current vaccines have proven less effective against the highly contagiousomicron variantthan they are against delta or other COVID-19 variants. In addition, protection gained from the vaccines decreases over time, particularly after six months.

Mounting evidenceindicatesbooster shotsare needed to "top up" COVID-19-fighting antibodies, especially against the new omicron variant. On Monday, the FDA expanded the authorization of boosters of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to includechildren ages 12 to 15, and those as young as 5 with compromised immune systems.

The CDC site still states that adults are "fully vaccinated" two weeks after a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or a single dose of the J&J/Janssen vaccine.

"Individuals are considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19 if they've received their primary series," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a briefing Wednesday. "That definition is not changing ... but we are now recommending individuals stay up to date with additional doses they are eligible for."

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, also clarified on Wednesday that federal vaccine mandates for incoming foreign travelers, health care workers and companies with more than 100 workers would not change to include boosters. "We do not have any plans to change that," Zients stated plainly.

Breakthrough cases in people who've completed two shots of an mRNA vaccine or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have become increasingly common: In New York, such infections were five times higher for the last week of December than the first,NBC New Yorkreported. NYC Mayor Eric Abrams is considering a booster mandate for teachers, police officers and other city workers, he toldABC's This Weekon Sunday.

Many schools and businesses are already requiring boosters. TheNFL announcedthat, starting Jan. 14, all media covering the NFL playoffs or the Super Bowl will need to have received a COVID-19 booster. Last month, the league mandatedbooster shots for coaches and staff-- but not players.

In November, Connecticut's Wesleyan University became thefirst college to make boosters mandatory for students. Several other northeastern colleges quickly followed suit, includingall of the Ivy League schools, followed by manyCaliforniaandOregonschools.

On New Year's Eve,New York Governor Kathy Hochul announcedthat all students in the State University of New York and City University of New York systems must be boosted to return to campus in person, as of Jan. 15.

For more, here's the latest on the Moderna booster shots, what you need to know about the Pfizer antiviral pilland how to pick between the vaccine boosters. The article continues below.

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The highly contagious omicron variant is currently the dominant COVID-19 strain in the US, representing nearly 60% of new infections. As such, COVID-19 cases have rocketed to all-time highs, according to the CDC, which reported a seven-day moving average of just under 500,000 new cases on Jan. 3, or roughly a 230% rise over 14 days.

While two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine (or one of J&J) combined with a booster doesn't provide complete protection from COVID-19, the vaccines offer a sturdy defense against illness. In a press briefing Dec. 29, Walensky said an unvaccinated person has 10 times the risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and 20 times the risk of dying compared with someone who's vaccinated and boosted.

According to the CDC's previous messaging, you're fully vaccinated two weeks after you receive the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or two weeks after a single dose of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine.

The CDC also considers you fully vaccinated if you received any single-dose vaccine listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization or any combination of the two-dose vaccines approved by the FDA or listed by the WHO for emergency use.

Though the official definition of "fully vaccinated" isn't likely to change, Fauci has said three shots should be consideredthe new baseline-- part of the primary series of vaccinations rather than a "booster."

"It should be a proper one from the get-go -- three shots," he said in September.

Israel's national coronavirus czar, Dr. Salman Zarka, told his country it should prepare for a fourth dose of an mRNA vaccine. Fauci has said that the need for a fourth jab is "conceivable" in the US, too, but not just yet.

"In the future, we might need an additional shot, but right now, we are hoping that we will get a greater degree of durability of protection from that booster shot," Fauci saidat a White House briefingDec. 29. "We're going to take one step at a time, get the data from the third boost and then make decisions based on scientific data."

As preliminary studies show omicron's ability to infect those who are considered fully vaccinated, the definition began shifting -- if not formally, then practically -- from two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to three.

"As far as I'm concerned -- I make it very clear -- if you want to be optimally protected, get boosted," Fauci saidon CNN's State of the Union, when asked if three shots will become the standard.

Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the University of California at San Francisco's department of medicine, said he thinks the definition change is coming soon.

"It's increasingly clear that if you have three shots, you're in pretty good shape," Wachter said last month during anonline COVID-19 discussionhosted by the San Francisco Chronicle. "I think we will stop calling people with two shots 'fully vaccinated' within a week or two," Wachter added. "Omicron is going to make that case quite vividly."

How many shots to be protected from omicron?

Vaccine makers are already pushing for three doses as the new standard. "Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the omicron strain, it's clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine," Pfizer Chairman Albert Bourlasaid in a statementon early results about the Pfizer vaccine's continued effectiveness.

The next step would be for the CDC to change its definition of what it means to be fully vaccinated, currently defined astwo shots of the mRNA vaccines or one dose of Johnson & Johnson's.

Will there be afourth shot? Israel has already started rolling out a fourth vaccine shot for medical workers, those of 60 and people who are immunocompromised. On Monday, the country began a study on the effectiveness of a second booster, testing 150 healthcare workers at the Sheba Medical Center. A spokesman says the study "will zero in on the efficacy of the vaccine in producing antibodies, and safety, in order to ascertain if a fourth vaccine is needed in general,"according to Reuters.

At last week'sWhite House COVID-19 press briefing, Fauci stressed the importance of first collecting and analyzing data from the third shot before considering a fourth dose.

For more, here's what we know about theomicron variantand how thenew mutation compares with delta. And here's how tostore your vaccine card on your phone.

If two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are not enough to guard against omicron, would we need a variant-specific booster to restore protection? According to Fauci, "At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster."

But getting from the two-dose definition to three will take effort:The CDC website says almost 206 million Americans right now are "fully vaccinated" with the Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. That's 62% percent of the total US population. However, only 68 million in the US have received a booster -- only a third of the so-called fully vaccinated, or a little more than 20% of the total US population.

"That's why getting more Americans vaccinated and boosted is central to the president's plan to fight COVID and confront omicron this winter," Zients said during last week's White House briefing.

Moderna has said it is studying an omicron-specific vaccine, as well as a multivalent shot that could protect against the alpha and delta strains, but clinical trials aren't expected to start until next year.

Learn smart gadget and internet tips and tricks with our entertaining and ingenious how-tos.

The CDC says you can "ensure you are optimally protected against COVID-19" by getting vaccinated and getting a booster. If you got the Pfizer vaccine, the CDC says you should get a booster at least five months after your second dose. If you got Moderna, the agency says you should get a booster at least six months after the second shot.

The Moderna vaccine, Spikevax, has been authorized only for adults 18 and up. The FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine for people 16 and up, and given emergency authorization for children 5 to 15 years old.

On Wednesday, the CDC expanded its recommendation on booster shots to include teens ages 12 to 17. In the CDC press release, Walensky said, "It is critical that we protect our children and teens from COVID-19 infection and the complications of severe disease. ... This booster dose will provide optimized protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant. I encourage all parents to keep their children up to date with CDC's COVID-19 vaccine recommendations."

If you got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, see the next section.

The CDC website indicates "optimal" protection after receiving a second shot of the one-dose J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at least two months after the first.

Last year, the agencyrecommended Moderna or Pfizer's mRNA vaccinesoverJohnson & Johnson''s viral-vector shot, citing a rare but dangerous blood-clot side effect. But a booster of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine provides strong protection against the omicron variant of COVID-19 --stronger, even, than Pfizer's jab -- according to new research.

A Dec. 30 studyof 69,000 South African health care workers found that, among individuals who already received one dose of the J&J vaccine, a booster given six to nine months later improved their odds against hospitalization from 63% to 85%.

A separate study by Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found a J&J booster given to individuals who were initially given two doses of Pfizer's mRNA vaccine generated a 41-fold increase in antibody response within a month, compared with only a 17-fold increase when given a booster of the Pfizer vaccine.

CNET reached out to Johnson & Johnson for comment but hasn't gotten a response.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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Do you need a booster shot to be 'fully vaccinated' against COVID? What does 'up to date' mean? - CNET