Mayo Clinic doctor discusses COVID boosters, omicron variant

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its recommendations for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to expand the use of a single booster dose to 12- to 15-year-olds. The Food and Drug Administration amended its emergency use authorization earlier this week.  Dr. Melanie Swift, co-chair of Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation and Distribution Work Group talked with KAUS News about the recommendation…

Dr. Swift went on to state that what constitutes an initial series depends on the COVID-19 vaccine a patient was given, and she went on to state that the timing of a patient’s booster depends upon the brand of their initial series….

The recommendations come at a time when the omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the nation. The U.S. recently hit a new pandemic high of over 300,000 average new daily cases of COVID-19, and COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise, as well.  Dr. Swift stated that one of the things about omicron is that it makes vaccines less effective..

The omicron variant of COVID-19 has been confirmed in all 50 states almost a month after it was first detected in the United States, and experts with Mayo have stated that it is now the dominant strain in the country, and they added that the variant appears to be more transmissible than other variants, including delta, but has so far led to milder disease.