Despite new data showing the effectiveness of boosters and the skyrocketing number of COVID-19 cases due to the more infectious omicron variant, the CDC has no plans to change its definition of “fully vaccinated.” The term still means two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer mRNA vaccines or one shot of Johnson & Johnson. Instead, the agency is pivoting to the more general descriptor of “up to date” to describe effective vaccine protection.
At Friday’s White House press briefing, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was asked by CNN, “Can you explain why the CDC is not changing the definition of ‘fully vaccinated,’ given that could potentially encourage more people to get a third shot?” The US has currently boosted 85.5 million people, or about 40% of people considered fully vaccinated.
Walensky responded: “In public health, for all vaccines, we’ve talked about being up to date for your vaccines. Every year, you need a flu shot; you’re not up to date with your flu shot until you’ve gotten your flu shot for that year. … What we really are working to do is pivot the language to make sure that everybody is as up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines as they personally could be.”
Read more at CNET.