Will Four COVID-19 Vaccinations Become Required?

The number of vaccinations required to be classified as ‘fully vaccinated’ in the U.S. could be increasing.

According to comments by leaders at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a new definition is being debated. These conversations are focused on the recent authorization for third and fourth COVID-19 vaccinations for certain people.

As of October 15, 2021, the CDC and FDA currently consider a person fully vaccinated after receiving two doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine.

The 19th Director of the CDC, Rochelle P. Walensky, stated in a press release issued on October 22, 2021, "The evidence shows that all three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the U.S. are safe, as demonstrated by the over 400 million vaccine doses already given."

And “We have not yet changed the definition of fully vaccinated. However, we may need to update our definition of fully vaccinated in the future,” Dr. Walensky told the media.

Previously, during FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting on October 14-15, 2021, Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., the Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA, stated…. ‘Based on mRNA vaccine protection waning, certain immunocompromised people may need three primary vaccinations and a fourth ‘booster’ dose.’’

Should these CDC and FDA leader’s comments become defacto mandates, millions of people will need to vaccinate.

As of October 23, 2021, the CDC’s data dashboard indicates about 57.4% of qualifying individuals are ‘full vaccinated.’ 

About 11.6 million additional/booster doses in fully vaccinated people have already been reported.

Unfortunately, the CDC’s data shows COVID-19 vaccinations have substantially slowed since September 2021.

The CDC’s latest report finds the 7-day average number of administered vaccine doses reported per day was 795,156, a 5.5% decrease from the previous week.

In Europe, the fully vaccinated definition has not yet changed, nor has the growth in overall COVID-19 vaccinations, according to data from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

‘The rapid, full vaccination of all targeted populations - in Europe and globally - is key to controlling the impact of the pandemic,’ says the EMA.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, commented, “The full vaccination of 70% of adults in the EU in August is a great achievement.”

“But the pandemic is not over. We need more. I call on everyone who can to get vaccinated.”

And we need to help the rest of the world vaccinate, too.”

A tactic to increase overall COVID-19 vaccinations may lie in expanding ‘consumer-choice.’

While the FDA has authorized just three COVID-19 vaccines, and the WHO has listed only seven vaccines, over ten additional vaccines are deployed globally.

In addition to innovative mRNA technologies, other COVID-19 vaccines have utilized proven virus-like particles, viral vectors, recombinant protein, live attenuated virus, and inactivated virus approaches.

Moreover, additional COVID-19 vaccines may soon become available.

On October 20, 2021, GAVI reported about (127) COVID-19 vaccine candidates were undergoing clinical trials.

PrecisionVaccinations publishes fact-checked research-based vaccine news.