CDC may make changes to the time needed between COVID-19 vaccine doses

by mcardinal

Lauren Dempsey, MS in Biomedicine and Law, RN, FISM News 

 

The CDC recently suggested that they are considering making changes to vaccine guidance on the available COVID-19 mRNA vaccines due to health concerns.

Experts on the vaccine advisory committee recommend modifying the current schedule due to the increased risk of heart inflammation seen in young men. The panel met Friday and discussed data on myocarditis and pericarditis that was presented by advisors to the CDC as well as potential recommendations on changes to the vaccine schedule for immunocompromised individuals. 

Health experts want to show the public that safety is the highest priority despite multiple reports of adverse reactions following vaccination. Dr. Matthew Daley, a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Colorado and committee member acknowledged that unvaccinated individuals have brought up the issue of vaccine safety but said, “We have vaccines that are highly effective and have a high degree of safety, but we have a way to make them even safer.”

The CDC hopes that this may encourage the estimated 33 million unvaccinated individuals to change their minds. 

The advisory committee, who makes recommendations on vaccinations to the CDC director, said that lengthening the amount of time needed between doses of mRNA vaccines, appears to lower the risk of myocarditis. This is based on data presented by Dr. Sara Oliver which showed lower cases of the side effect when vaccines were administered eight weeks apart. Experts also suggest that extending the time between doses may improve the durability of the mRNA vaccines, which wanes within 4 to 6 months post vaccination. 

Data that was presented at the committee meeting indicated that individuals who received Moderna’s mRNA vaccine were more likely to suffer from adverse events than with Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine. The study also revealed that Moderna’s clinical trial participants experienced higher rates of adverse events than the placebo group of participants.  

Of the 360 individuals identified through surveys that were reported to have a diagnosis of myocarditis, 92% were hospitalized, 62% were readmitted to the hospital for concerns related to the heart, and 20% were prescribed cardiac medications. While providers estimate that 81% of patients have “probably fully or fully recovered,”16% continue to report cardiac issues directly related to myocarditis post-vaccination. The follow-up surveys are being modified to include children aged 5-11 years old which will start this month. 

Health experts have indicated that they are satisfied with these results and feel that it reflects both safety and efficacy of the recommended schedule.

Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot, a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University and committee member declared it a “win-win” strategy, saying, “As we approach these new variants, the higher antibodies and the more diverse these antibodies are, the better protected people will be.”

The CDC has not made a decision at this time, but committee members are confident that this will bolster public perception and that these adjustments show the public that “we are very focused on this in the right way and making adjustments that are overall beneficial,” said Dr. Oliver Brooks, committee member and chief medical officer at Watts HealthCare Corporation in Los Angeles.

However, many critics of the vaccine roll out have cited a lack of long-term safety studies that may have revealed vaccine injuries. Specifically, there is concern that the clinical trials were rushed, and trial participants had not been unblinded, meaning the control arm of the trial were allowed to get vaccinated. This reduced the amount of unvaccinated trial participants and the opportunity to complete long-term assessment of safety and efficacy. 

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