The CDC is accepting public comment on vaccines and boosters up until today, June 16 for a meeting next week.
Please submit public comment here: https://www.regulations.gov/document/CDC-2023-0035-0001
Personalize it to match your situation
Here are three samples:
Concerned Person: “Vaccines are an important layer of protection to keep myself and my loved ones safe from COVID as it continues to mutate. We have the opportunity to employ many layers of precautions especially in healthcare settings. The CDC ACIP committee should make updated vaccines available to people of all ages - including children - every six months, and quickly address new variants. Also, we need speedy development of next generation vaccines that prevent transmission and protect us from coronavirus mutations.”
Public health Professional II (with references): I support increasing the frequency of COVID boosters to at least every 6 months broadly, not just for selected groups such as the elderly or immunocompromised. This fall’s updated vaccine formulations should also be made available for all age groups, including children aged 6 months and older.
Currently, as a non-immunocompromised adult under the age of 65, I am only eligible for boosters on an annual basis.
The preponderance of all available evidence supports the fact that immunity wanes in the months following vaccination, and allowing boosters (all authorized vaccine types) at least every 6 months allows all of us who are at risk to maintain better protection than an annual booster strategy would allow. Particularly, I hope you will allow boosting with mRNA vaccines every 6 months, given the higher proven effectiveness of these vaccines (one recent comparative example [1]).
All of us are vulnerable to COVID infection, and allowing boosters every 6 months will reduce barriers to high levels of protection for all of us, including individuals who are frequently exposed due to the lack of COVID mitigations in our schools and workplaces, the millions of Americans who already have long COVID and are at risk of additional damage and disability due to reinfection, as well as traditional risk groups such as those who are immunocompromised, those at high risk of severe disease [2], and the elderly. Vaccination is known to reduce the risk of long COVID [3]; however, the impact of waning immunity on this effect has not been sufficiently studied.
Given the excellent benefits and exceedingly low risks of vaccination, as well as the significant societal risks of living through an ongoing airborne pandemic with repeated COVID exposure in daily life, it is a mistake to deny boosters at least every 6 months to the broader population.
Find more information and references supporting a 6-month booster frequency on the People’s CDC substack post [4].
References
1.Liu B, Stepien S, Qian J, Gidding H, Nicolopoulos K, Amin J, Cheng A, Macartney K. Comparative Effectiveness of Four COVID-19 Vaccines, BNT162b2 MRNA, MRNA-1273, ChAdOx1 NCov-19 and NVX-CoV2373 against SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) Infection. Epidemiology; 2022. doi:10.1101/2022.12.22.22283869 URL: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.22.22283869v2
2.https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html
3.Thaweethai T, Jolley SE, Karlson EW, et al. Development of a Definition of Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection. JAMA. Published online May 25, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.8823
4.https://peoplescdc.substack.com/p/tell-the-fda-we-need-boosters-authorized
Public health professional II: “As a public health professional and health equity public health researcher, the COVID pandemic is not over nor is it endemic. We have the opportunity to employ many layers of precautions especially in healthcare settings. The CDC ACIP committee must consider making available to all people, including children, updated COVID vaccines that quickly address new variants no later than every six months. Also, we need speedy development of next generation vaccines that prevent transmission and protect us from coronavirus mutations.”