Moderna on Thursday asked U.S. regulators to authorize low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children younger than 6, a long-awaited move toward potentially opening shots for millions of tots by summer.

Frustrated families are waiting impatiently for a chance to protect the nation’s littlest kids as all around them people shed masks and other public health precautions -- even though highly contagious coronavirus mutants continue to spread.

Moderna submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration that it hopes will prove two low-dose shots can protect babies, toddlers and preschoolers -- albeit not as effectively during the omicron surge as earlier in the pandemic.

“There is an important unmet medical need here with these youngest kids,” Dr. Paul Burton, Moderna's chief medical officer, told The Associated Press. Two kid-size shots “will safely protect them. I think it is likely that over time they will need additional doses. But we're working on that.”

Now, only children ages 5 or older can be vaccinated in the U.S., using rival Pfizer’s vaccine, leaving 18 million younger tots unprotected.

Moderna's vaccine isn't the only one in the race. Pfizer is soon expected to announce if three of its even smaller-dose shots work for the littlest kids, months after the disappointing discovery that two doses weren’t quite strong enough.

Whether it’s one company’s shots or both, FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said the agency will “move quickly without sacrificing our standards” in deciding if tot-sized doses are safe and effective.

While questions are swirling about what's taking so long, Marks pointedly told lawmakers this week that the FDA can't evaluate a product until a manufacturer completes its application. FDA will publicly debate the evidence with its scientific advisers before making a decision, and Marks said multiple meetings would be set to cover several expected applications.

“It’s critically important that we have the proper evaluation so that parents will have trust in any vaccines that we authorize,” Marks told a Senate committee.

If FDA clears vaccinations for the littlest, next the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have to recommend who needs them -- all tots or just those at higher risk from COVID-19.

Many parents are desperate for whichever vaccine gets to the scientific finish line first.

“We’ve been kind of left behind as everybody else moves on,” said Meagan Dunphy-Daly, a Duke University marine biologist whose 6-year-old daughter is vaccinated -- but whose 3-year-old and 18-month-old sons are part of Pfizer’s trial.

The family continues to mask and take other precautions until it’s clear if the boys got real vaccine or dummy shots. If it turns out they weren't protected in the Pfizer study and Moderna's shots are cleared first, Dunphy-Daly said she'd seek them for her sons.

“I will feel such a sense of relief when I know my boys are vaccinated and that the risk of them getting a serious infection is so low,” she said.

Some parents even have urged the government to let families choose shots before all the evidence is in.

“This strain of COVID feels almost impossible to dodge," Dana Walker, a mother of an 8-month-old, tearfully told a CDC meeting last week. “Cut red tape and allow parents to protect their kids.”

The FDA will face some complex questions.

In a study of kids ages 6 months through 5 years, two Moderna shots — each a quarter of the regular dose — triggered high levels of virus-fighting antibodies, the same amount proven to protect young adults, Burton said. There were no serious side effects, and the shots triggered fewer fevers than other routine vaccinations.

But the vaccine proved between about 40% and 50% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 during the trial. Burton blamed the omicron variant's ability to partially evade vaccine immunity, noting that unboosted adults showed similarly less effectiveness against milder omicron infections. While no children became severely ill during the study, he said high antibody levels are a proxy for protection against more serious illness — and the company will test a child booster dose.

Another issue: So far in the U.S., Moderna's vaccine is restricted to adults. Other countries have expanded the shot to kids as young as 6. But months ago the FDA cited concern about a rare side effect, heart inflammation, in teen boys, and it hasn't ruled on Moderna's earlier pediatric applications.

Burton said the FDA may consider its vaccine for children of all ages — but also might open it first to the youngest kids who have no other option. He said safety data from millions of older children given Moderna vaccinations abroad should help reassure parents.

While COVID-19 generally isn’t as dangerous in youngsters as adults, some do become severely ill or even die. About 475 children younger than 5 have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic’s start, according to the CDC, and child hospitalizations soared at omicron's peak.

Yet it’s not clear how many parents intend to vaccinate the youngest kids. Less than a third of children ages 5 to 11 have had two vaccinations, and 58% of those ages 12 to 17.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Federal health officials said Sunday that kid-sized doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines appear to be safe and effective for kids under 5, a key step toward a long-awaited decision to begin vaccinating the youngest American children.

The Food and Drug Administration posted its analysis of the Pfizer shot ahead of a Wednesday meeting where outside experts will vote on whether the shots are ready for the nation’s 18 million babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Kids under 5 are the only group not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S.

Late last week the FDA posted a similar analysis of Moderna’s shots for children under 6.

The FDA's vaccine advisers will evaluate Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines this week for children 6 months through 5 years and 6 years through 17 years should be granted emergency use authorization.

Children under 5 years old — about 18 million people — are the only U.S. age group that still aren't eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna's vaccine is currently available only to people 18 and older. Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is already authorized for children age 5 and older; FDA's advisers will also evaluate its vaccine for younger children this week.

Briefing documents posted ahead of the FDA committee meetings describe how Moderna's vaccine was assessed by immunobridging studies to see if the immune response among younger people was comparable to that of 18-to-25-year-olds, who are already eligible to receive the vaccine.

"Immunobridging success criteria were met for all four pediatric age cohorts," the FDA's document stated.

If regulators clear the shots by one or both companies, vaccinations could begin as soon as next week with the drugmakers ready to rapidly ship doses ordered by the government. Parents have been pressing federal officials for months for the opportunity to protect their smallest children as more adults shed masks and abandon other public health precautions.

While only about 3% of U.S. COVID cases are in the age group 6 months to 4 years, hospitalization and death rates in that group are higher than those for older children, according to the FDA’s analysis — one reason experts have said protecting this group is important.

The FDA said children who received Pfizer’s shots during testing developed high levels of virus-fighting antibodies expected to protect them against coronavirus. That’s the basic threshold needed to win FDA authorization. But additional testing turned up key differences, with stronger results for Pfizer.

Pfizer’s vaccine, given as a three-shot series, appeared 80% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, although that calculation was based on just 10 cases diagnosed among study participants, and before the super-contagious omicron variant of the virus was dominant. The figure could change as Pfizer’s study continues.

Moderna’s two-dose series was only about 40% to 50% effective at preventing milder infections, though it was tested during the omicron wave. Moderna has begun testing a booster for tots.

On Wednesday, the FDA will ask an independent panel of vaccine experts to debate both companies’ data before voting. The FDA is not required to follow the group’s recommendations, but the process is seen as a key step in publicly vetting the shots.

The FDA is expected to make its official decision shortly after Wednesday’s all-day meeting. The next step: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends how to use vaccines, will convene its own expert panel to debate which tots need vaccinations.

It’s not clear how much demand there will initially be for the shots. A recent survey suggests only 1 in 5 parents of young children would get their kids vaccinated right away. Vaccines have been available since November for older U.S. schoolchildren, yet less than a third of those ages 5 to 11 have gotten the two recommended doses, according to government figures.

For the youngest children, each company is offering different dose sizes and number of shots, beginning at 6 months through 4 years for Pfizer and through 5 years for Moderna.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech plan to offer two shots three weeks apart followed by a third at least two months later — each one-tenth the dose given to adults. Pfizer is currently the only company with a COVID-19 vaccine for older U.S. children.

Moderna is seeking FDA clearance for two shots, each a quarter of its adult dose, given about four weeks apart.

The FDA currently allows Moderna’s vaccine to be used only in adults. But some countries allow full-size doses for teens and half-size shots for kids ages 6 to 11 — a step the FDA also is considering.

More than 30,000 U.S. children younger than 5 have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and nearly 500 coronavirus deaths have been reported in that age group, according to U.S. health officials.

The government allowed pharmacies and states to start placing orders for tot-sized doses last week, with 5 million initially available — half made by Pfizer and half by Moderna.

CNN contributed to this report.

Researchers are on the cusp of rolling out a new vaccine to combat the respiratory syncytial virus amid an increase in cases in recent months.RSV has become the second leading cause of hospitalization, and tens of thousands of people a year die from it. Children under 2 and adults older than 60 are most at risk for serious disease, and a vaccine has been elusive -- until now."It will be a huge, huge breakthrough for us to have an RSV vaccine available," said Dr. James Campbell, professor of pediatrics and the University of Maryland School of Medicine.RELATED: Sinai pediatrician describes ICU availability amid increase in RSV casesModerna released preliminary results of their vaccine for RSV that shows it's more than 80% effective at preventing serious disease in people older than 60. The company is preparing to submit the vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration for approval, which follows submissions from Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline late last year."The Pfizer vaccine, they also relayed results on giving that same vaccine to pregnant women, and then what happens is the antibodies the woman makes, gets passed through the placenta into the baby, and they showed very good protection in the first three months of life," Campbell said.Clinical trials are underway on a vaccine for babies and young children, who are among the high-risk groups for developing complications and dying from RSV.RELATED: Maryland hospitals concerned over surge of children with RSVThese would be the first RSV vaccines approved, which would be a feat because researchers have been working on them since the 1960s. Moderna's version uses the mRNA technology made famous by its COVID-19 vaccine."The reason why they could move so quickly on the COVID vaccine was because they had already been studying this RSV vaccine that we're just learning about now, and they used that same technology, and a lot of the tricks they found from that, in order to develop the COVID vaccine," Campbell said.RSV video playlist below:Campbell cautioned the results in the RSV vaccine study are preliminary and are not yet peer-reviewed, so while promising, he's waiting for the full details."That doesn't take away that this is really exciting news, but I think everyone should be waiting to see what the final, all the data show for this vaccine and the other RSV vaccines," Campbell said.Campbell said researchers are hopeful that some of these vaccines will be approved in time for RSV season in the fall.LINK: Maryland Department of Health website for RSV

Data from the Centers for Disease Control shows, as of Jan. 1, only about 40% of pregnant women have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

A new study out of Scotland is shining a much larger light on the benefits and safety of getting vaccinated while pregnant.  

More pregnant mothers are weighing whether to get the vaccine, especially with the surging omicron variant.

"I didn't want to get it and potentially harm my baby but looking back, that doesn't really make any sense because I obviously wouldn't have wanted to get COVID with the baby," Heaven Taylor-Wynn said. 

Doctors are trying to convince their pregnant patients to get the vaccine because they are seeing rough outcomes in some unvaccinated pregnant women and their babies. 

"I felt like there was a herd of elephants on my chest, and I couldn't breathe," Ashley Duque said.

"I've seen women they got really bad preeclampsia and a funny variant of preeclampsia called help syndrome that makes them very, very, very sick and requires urgent delivery," said Dr. Brad Holbrook, maternal fetal medicine specialist at Community Medical Center.

"I've seen women with stillbirths. I've seen babies die after they were born," she added.

The study out of Scotland confirms everything doctors like Holbrook have been saying,

The Scotland team studied all women who were pregnant or became pregnant from December 2020 through October 2021. 

"They looked at the entire population of the whole country and because they have a whole, you know, an integrated system," Dr. Holbrook said. "They have 130,000 women in this study that essentially showed the same things, which is that, that women who get COVID are potentially in for some problems. So women who get COVID are more likely to have a pre-term delivery, a stillbirth complication with baby or with their pregnancy, and that women who are vaccinated and then get sick with COVID are very likely to have a much more mild course, so it really just confirmed everything that we've seen."

Among unvaccinated women, the study found they made up 77.4% of COVID infections. They accounted for 90.9% of cases that required hospitalization or critical care, and all 450 fetal and newborn deaths associated with the virus. The rate of deaths in babies after 28 weeks was much higher in women who got COVID-19 within a month of giving birth.  

"The risk of getting infected is pretty high, and the risks involved in being vaccinated are almost nonexistent," said Dr. Alisa Kachikis, assistant professor of maternal fetal medicine at University of Washington.

"I do feel like when I can sit down and talk with them face-to-face about it, look, you know, I'm not representing a drug company," Dr. Holbook said. "I'm not representing the government. I'm just representing the science and what I've read and understand about this and my own experience and based on that and what I've seen, I've seen a lot of complications from COVID."

The highly-transmissible omicron variant brings new concerns, especially in places just starting to experience the surge, like Montana.

"We're gonna have this big bunch of pregnant women come in really sick with COVID and not just pregnant women, unpregnant people as well coming into the hospital, and the hospital is gonna be totally full and understaffed," Dr. Holbrook said. "It's gonna be a very difficult couple of weeks, I think."

This story was originally reported on Newsy.com.

Vaccine advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 15-0 Thursday to change recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines to make clear that shots made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are preferred over Johnson & Johnson's vaccine.

The new recommendation: "mRNA vaccines are preferred over the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of Covid-19 for those 18 years of age and over."

Related video above: Omicron spreads 70 times faster than delta in certain respiratory tissue, researchers say

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices endorsed the updated recommendation after hearing new data indicating that a rare blood clotting syndrome is more common among people who recently got a J&J vaccine than previously believed. The CDC has logged 54 cases in the U.S. of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome or TTS in the U.S. since the vaccine became available. Nine people have died -- seven women and two men.

ACIP members considered the new data and weighed it against numerous studies showing J&J's vaccine is less effective than the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines in preventing infection. They also discussed the risks of completely removing J&J's vaccine as an option, as well as the potential confusion and mistrust that might be caused by changing recommendations about the vaccine.

"We will absolutely emphasize how important education around the risk of these events is," the CDC's Dr. Sara Oliver told the meeting.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration strengthened language in the fact sheet that goes along with the Janssen vaccine, saying it should not be given to anyone with a history of TTS.

The rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are improving; an optimistic sign for the future of the pandemic. But with so many Americans still unvaccinated, the numbers could still go back up, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Fox News Sunday.

"If we don't do very well in that regard, there's always the danger that there will be enough circulating virus that you can have a stalling of the diminishing of the number of cases and when that happens, as we've seen in the past with other waves that we've been through, there's the danger of resurgence," said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

Although cases still remain high at an average of more than 85,000 infections a day, they are down by more than 8,000 from the weeks before, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And deaths are down an average of more than 200 a day from the start of the month.

Progress in the numbers is still threatened, however, by the low rates of vaccination. As of Sunday, 57% of the total population was fully vaccinated against the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And though health experts do not know exactly what proportion of the population needs to be protected to control the spread of the virus, Fauci has said a vast majority will need to be vaccinated.

The good news is, Fauci does not think another spike in cases is inevitable.

"It's going to be within our capability to prevent that from happening," said Fauci. "The degree to which we continue to come down in that slope will depend on how well we do about getting more people vaccinated."

Johnson & Johnson boosters

As more COVID-19 boosters are potentially set to become available, experts say those who received the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine are "awfully well protected," but should still get another shot for maximum safety.

"The Johnson & Johnson vaccine turns out not to be quite as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna. And people who got (the J&J vaccine) way back at the beginning of this year therefore have been somewhat less protected, although they're still awfully well protected," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

Collins' remarks come after a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommended all adults who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot should get a second dose at least two months after their first dose.

The FDA will consider the committee's advice. Then the CDC's vaccine advisers will be asked to consider it.

Experts are advising people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should get a booster shot as soon as it is available because it will provide them with the best protection against COVID-19, especially as the more transmissible delta variant continues to be the dominant strain in the United States. But they are also reinforcing the point the vaccine remains highly effective against the worst consequences of the virus.

Johnson & Johnson has indicated its vaccine immunity has waned -- but not by much. Still, the company said studies show a booster dose increases protection equivalent to the 94% efficacy shown by the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines soon after they were first given in clinical trials last year.

Meanwhile, various real-world studies suggest Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was anywhere between 50% and 68% effective, Dr. Amanda Cohn with the CDC said Friday.

"If the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna had not been so utterly, amazingly effective, 95%, then Johnson & Johnson would look like a hero with their one dose, but I guess our standards are being set awfully high here by the other vaccines," Collins told CNN.

But a study published Thursday reported a steep decline in vaccine effectiveness against infection by August of this year, especially for people who received the J&J vaccine.

Researchers found among more than 600,000 veterans, J&J's vaccine's protection against infection fell from 88% in March to 3% in August. Meanwhile, Moderna's vaccine protection against infection fell to 64% from 92%, and Pfizer's declined to 50% from 91% during the same time period.

"The performance of these vaccines against severe disease, keeping people out of the hospital, is distinctly better than that, and that's the main thing we're interested in," said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

The FDA vaccine advisory committee also supported emergency use authorization for booster shots of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine after six months, but not for everyone. Moderna recipients over the age of 65 and adults with conditions that put them at risk for severe disease or who work or live in a place which puts them at higher risk of complications or severe illness may be eligible for the 50-microgram booster, which is half the size of the primary two-dose series.

And as for whether booster shots will become available for everyone who's already vaccinated, health officials are still working to determine that.

"I think as more data come in and ... are carefully reviewed and vetted, then I think the expansion of the recommendations may be in order. Not quite yet," Schaffner said.

Minnesota Emergency and Urgent Care services suspended over nurses strike

In many places, the brunt of the hospital strain from COVID-19 has fallen on nurses, and a strike in Minnesota has impacted services.

Emergency and Urgent Care services have been temporarily suspended at Abbott Northwestern WestHealth in Plymouth, Minnesota due to about 50 nurses from the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) choosing to strike, according to a statement from Allina Health.

The nurses are striking to seek "a contract that provides fair pay and benefits to nurses on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic," the MNA said in a statement on Thursday.

"MNA nurses have been negotiating a new contract for months, but Allina has refused to agree to fair pay for holiday work or adequate benefits," the MNA said in the statement. "Compensating nurses fairly for holiday work is especially critical because understaffing by Allina and other hospital systems has required nurses to work more days and longer hours, including overtime and holidays, as they continue on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic."

The closure began Sunday morning and will last until 7:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to the statement.

"Allina Health and Abbott Northwestern WestHealth have negotiated 7 times with MNA. A contract settlement was previously reached and unanimously recommended by the union's bargaining team. Unfortunately, the MNA could not finalize that agreement," Allina Health's statement says. "Throughout negotiations, we have consistently offered proposals that demonstrate our commitment to our employees, including an immediate wage increase to align wages with other metro hospitals and agreeing to some of the union's other priority issues."

Black people represent a larger share of new vaccinations

As public health officials talk boosters, 66 million Americans who are eligible for a vaccine still haven't received their initial shots, while nearly 57% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Black and brown communities have proven to be disproportionally bearing the brunt of the pandemic for various reasons, including health care inequities.

But there is some good news in terms of Black people's vaccination numbers. Recently, Black people -- who comprise 12.4% of the total U.S. population -- have come to represent a slightly larger share of new vaccinations than in the past, according to the CDC.

Since vaccinations began, Black people in the U.S. have accounted for 10.6% of all people with at least one dose. But in the past two weeks, they have accounted for 11.4% of new vaccinations.

The growth in vaccinations comes after two studies published by the CDC in April showed racial and ethnic minority groups had higher rates of hospitalization for COVID-19 and sought emergency department care for COVID-19 more when compared to White people.

Another analysis published earlier this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) showed the difference in COVID-19 cases and deaths between Black, Hispanic and White people is narrowing.

KFF researchers found while disparities are still present across different racial groups, the gap is improving for Black and Hispanic people, based on an analysis of case and death data from CDC last month. But COVID-19 infections remain high in Native American and Alaska Native people.

Some in law enforcement are resisting vaccine, but COVID-19 is killing more of them than gunfire

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has become the leading cause of death for officers, despite law enforcement being among the first groups eligible to receive the vaccine at the end of 2020.

As of Saturday, the total stood at 476 COVID-19 related deaths since the start of the pandemic, compared to 94 from gunfire in the same period.

Still, law enforcement officers and their unions across the country have resisted vaccine mandates, despite the delta variant-fueled resurgence of COVID-19 and effectiveness of the shots in preventing severe cases and death.

Reasons cited for the vaccine resistance among law enforcement officers range from disinformation to distrust in the science of the vaccines.

In Chicago, the head of the police union asked officers not to follow the mayor's order to submit COVID-19 vaccination proof by the Friday deadline.

John Catanzara, the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president, urged, in a video message posted on YouTube, for officers to stand their ground against the mandate.

"I am telling you right now. It is an improper order. It is illegal ... Refuse that order," Catanzara said in the video.

The city filed a complaint alleging the union was "encouraging a work stoppage or strike." A Cook County Circuit judge ruled Friday night Catanzara should not make public statements encouraging members to not comply with the vaccination policy.

Catanzara "has never engaged in, supported, or encouraged a work stoppage," according to a union statement on Friday.

Lightfoot said the city would take the weekend to check with officers who have not complied with the mandate. She said officers should report for duty until they are told by supervisors they have been placed on leave.

Vaccine advisers to the Food and Drug Administration are meeting Thursday morning to discuss whether to authorize boosters of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for some adults.

It's the first portion of a two-day Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting that will also include a vote on boosters for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a presentation on mix-and-match vaccines. Thursday's agenda focuses on Moderna boosters, and includes a presentation by Moderna, and another by the FDA, which will provide its assessment of Moderna's booster data.

Moderna is requesting authorization for a 50-microgram booster dose — half the size of the 100-microgram doses used in the primary series of the two-dose vaccine — at least six months after the second dose, and only for certain groups: people age 65 and older; people ages 18 to 64 who are at high risk of severe COVID-19; and people ages 18 to 64 whose exposure to the coronavirus in their settings or jobs put them at risk for COVID-19 complications or severe illness.

Moderna's request mirrors the groups authorized to receive a booster dose of Pfizer's mRNA vaccine. Third doses of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines are already authorized for some immunocompromised people.

On Thursday, the committee will hear from Dr. Peter Marks, the director of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research who recently took over as acting director of the agency's Office of Vaccines Research and Review as two of its senior leaders prepared to depart the agency.

Israeli researchers will also brief VRBPAC on booster data from there; most people in Israel received the Pfizer COVID-19, and boosters for vaccinated people began weeks before the United States authorized Pfizer boosters. The presenters, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preiss, director of public health services at Israel's Ministry of Health and Ron Milo, a professor at Israel's Weizmann Institute, spoke in support of Pfizer's booster application last month.

The meeting, which will be streamed online, is scheduled to last until 4:45 p.m. ET. A two-hour period for discussion and voting is scheduled to begin at 2:45 p.m. ET.

The FDA's committee of independent advisers typically discusses and makes recommendations to the agency around vaccine authorizations and approvals, and the agency then makes the final decision about whether to OK a vaccine. If the FDA gives emergency use authorization to Moderna boosters, vaccine advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet to discuss which groups to recommend them to. Typically, shots can be administered once the CDC director signs off on the recommendation.

CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is already scheduled to meet to discuss boosters from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Oct. 20-21.

Amid the growing prospect of more COVID-19 booster shots becoming available, an expert has suggested that some people could receive a dose of a different vaccine from the one they initially received.

"I hope that when the FDA and CDC review data around Moderna and Johnson & Johnson that they will allow a mix-and-match approach," CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen said Friday.

Vaccine advisers for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet Oct. 14 and 15 to discuss applications for booster doses from Moderna and J&J's vaccine arm Janssen. And on Oct. 20 and 21, vaccine experts with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are slated to discuss the same course of action.

A Pfizer booster shot received emergency use authorization in late September for people 65 and older, people at high risk of severe disease and people whose jobs put them at risk of infection.

Wen, also the former health commissioner for the City of Baltimore, said allowing the mix-and-match option is more convenient to those who initially received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in the event either booster shot isn't available where they go for their shot.

"The mRNA vaccines really should be interchangeable," she said.

Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines both use genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA) to deliver immunity, but they use differing doses and slightly different formulations. J&J's Janssen vaccine uses an inactivated common cold virus called adenovirus — a viral vector — to carry genetic instructions into the body.

But Wen cautioned that people who received the J&J vaccine may need to consider the risks associated with taking its booster dose.

"We know that there is an association between the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and a very rare — but extremely serious blood clotting disorder — in women under the age of 50," Wen told CNN. She added while she was fully vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, she'd rather get a different vaccine booster.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said late last month, "mix and match" studies are underway.

"The mix-and-match study in which you look at Moderna as the boost against the other three, those data are now available," Fauci had said at a White House COVID-19 briefing.

The data has not yet been published or submitted to the FDA.

Already, CDC data shows more than 6 million fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose. An average of 390,444 people are getting a booster shot each day, while only 288,105 people are starting their vaccination series each day and 276,539 people are becoming fully vaccinated each day.

Plus, certain people who are immune-compromised can get a third dose, although it's not technically considered a booster because it's likely they did not fully respond to the first two doses.

Overall infections are down, but experts warn against complacency

Still, experts caution that the primary public health focus must remain on getting initial vaccine shots into the arms of the millions of Americans who aren't vaccinated at all.

"As a country, we are definitely trending in the right direction — finally," Wen said. "The problem, though, is that people really need to look at where they are. Because while there are some places that are really doing very well with high vaccination rates and low infection rates, there are also other places that are still trending in the wrong direction."

COVID-19 infections are down by nearly 35% from last month, and the number of people fighting the virus in hospitals dropped by more than 31% from a month earlier, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, respectively.

But experts, including Wen and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, are warning against complacency as there are still areas showing upward trends in deaths and hospitalizations.

"We're thankfully seeing cases and hospitalizations come down, but it's not a reason for us to take our foot off the accelerator or to relax our guards," Murthy said earlier this week.

In Alabama, infections have decreased in recent weeks, but people are still dying from the disease at high rates, a top state health official said Friday.

"Very thankfully, we've had declines in our number of hospitalizations. ... We're down to just over 1,000 in-patients in the state," State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said. He acknowledged that the number was still high, "but it's about two-thirds less than we were seeing a month or so ago."

He added: "We have not really seen a change in the number of deaths, unfortunately."

And Pennsylvania reported the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since February, a spokesperson for the state's health department said. Of the 3,001 people hospitalized with the virus, 680 were in intensive care units Thursday, officials said.

COVID-19 racial and ethnic disparity gap narrows but remains wide

Meanwhile, Black and brown communities have been bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Racial and ethnic minority groups had higher rates of hospitalization for COVID-19 and sought emergency department care for COVID-19 more when compared to White people, according to CDC studies published in April.

A new analysis published Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) shows the difference in COVID-19 cases and deaths between Black, Hispanic and White people is narrowing.

KFF researchers found that while disparities are still present across different racial groups, the gap is improving for Black and Hispanic people, based on an analysis of case and death data from CDC last month. But COVIID-19 infections remain high in American Indian and Alaska Native people.

The most recent data included in the report, from Sept. 25, shows a case rate of 96.1 COVID-19 infections for every 100,000 White people. In Hispanic people, this number was 90.8; in Black people, it was 92.7.

The American Indian and Alaska Native communities saw the highest case rate per 100,000 people, at 181. Asian people had the lowest case rate: 42.9 per 100,000 people.

Meanwhile, a report from the CDC on Thursday showed that children from racial and ethnic minorities were far more likely to lose a parent or grandparent who takes care of them.

National Center for Health Statistics data through June showed that children of racial and ethnic minorities accounted for 65% of those who lost a primary caregiver, while White children accounted for 35%. That's even though minorities account for just 39% of the U.S. population.

CHICAGO — Public health officials have been debating whether it may be more effective to get more people their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and delaying the second round of shots that are needed for the highest immunity.

Last month, social media was flooded with images of frontline health care workers proudly rolling up their sleeves to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

But a slow rollout, a surge in cases, and the emergence a of a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus have increased the urgency of the vaccination campaign.

“I think there is an urgency to getting people vaccinated in the best way possible quickly,” said Dr. Benjamin Singer, an assistant professor pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine

In the UK, public health officials say prioritizing first doses will delay the interval of the second dose up to 12 weeks.

Pfizer, which is set to deliver 200 million doses of its vaccine to the U.S. by August of 2021, says it has tested their vaccine’s efficacy only when the two doses were administered 21 days apart. Moderna’s two-shot vaccine must be administered 28 days apart.

“Ninety, 95 percent efficacy, I mean, that's an amazing number, but the only way that we know with certainty to get to that level is with that two doses, three to four-week schedule,” said Singer.

Delays in administering the vaccine are already being reported across the U.S. There are now looming questions about what to do if a second dose has to be postponed.

“It could seem premature to begin discussing some of these contingency plans,” said Singer. “But I think it's an appropriate time to at least begin having the discussions.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of Monday morning, of the 15.4 million doses distributed, only 4.6 million people got their first dose.

“Right now, our problem isn't so much having the right number of doses, it's getting those doses into the arms of people,” said Singer.

In recent days, some health experts have suggested delaying the second dose could actually be a strategy to inoculate more people. In a Washington Post op-ed this weekend, Drs. Robert Wachter and Ashish Jha write: “Giving 100 million people — particularly those at high risk — a single shot that is 80 to 90 percent effective will save far more lives than giving 50 million people two shots that are 95 percent effective.”

“There's also some discussion about whether you could stay on the two-shot schedule but give a half dose inject you know half the volume and achieve somewhat of a similar response.”

But late Monday, in a strongly-worded statement, the FDA dismissed the idea of altering dosages and the timeline saying, “…making such changes that are not supported by adequate scientific evidence may ultimately be counterproductive to public health.”

The first doses of the vaccines in the U.S. were administered in mid-December, which means many are due for their booster shot this week.

Booster shots are here, after much hoopla from the White House and a great deal of discussion and consideration from the teams of doctors and other experts who advise the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 2 million people have already received third doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, but these technically were not booster shots — they were extra doses given to people whose immune systems are compromised and may not have responded fully to the first two doses of vaccines.

But now the CDC and FDA have agreed many Americans need boosters and should start getting them. Here are some important things to know about them:

Who is eligible?

Many adults will be eligible for boosters if they have already received two doses of Pfizer's vaccine.

"Starting today, if you are six months out from your last dose of the Pfizer vaccine, you are eligible for a booster if you fall into one of three high risk groups," U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told a White House COVID-19 briefing Friday.

"Number one: You are 65 or older. Number two: You have a medical condition that puts you at high risk of severe illness with COVID and these conditions include obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease and others. And Number three: You work or live in a setting where you are at high risk of exposure to COVID. This includes health care workers, teachers, those living in shelters or prisons and grocery store workers."

The federal government website at vaccines.gov has links to pages outlining who is eligible for a booster shot and has lists of locations where shots are available.

The CDC's Dr. Kathleen Dooling told the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices earlier this week there is a wide variety of people who might be included in the high risk groups. "Fully vaccinated persons with underlying medical conditions may be at risk of severe COVID-19 if they become infected with SARS-CoV-2," she said. They include cancer, stroke, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, diabetes, heart conditions, obesity, pregnancy and smoking.

White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said up to 20 million Americans fall into these categories as of now.

When and where can people get one?

People have already started getting booster shots.

Zients said there is plenty of supply, and people should be able to get boosters at pharmacies, doctors' offices and sometimes at mass vaccination sites.

"Boosters will be free for everyone, regardless of immigration or health insurance status. No ID or insurance required," he said Friday.

"And we've worked closely with partners including governors, pharmacies, doctors, long term care facilities and other providers so that eligible Americans are able to get a booster shot at roughly 80,000 places across the country, including over 40,000 local pharmacies," Zients added.

"CDC contacted tens of thousands of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other high-risk settings to ensure that they are ready," he said.

"Colorado has nine mobile vaccination clinics ready to go to get boosters to where people are. And we'll double that number to 18 over the coming weeks."

He said Colorado, New York, Ohio and other states were readying large vaccination centers if there is demand.

What about everyone else—including people who got Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines?

The FDA and CDC will continue to consider widening the recommendations for who should and could get booster shots. Moderna has asked the FDA to consider booster doses for people who got its vaccine. Johnson & Johnson has yet to apply.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said her agency acted quickly on FDA recommendations for Pfizer vaccine recipients.

"We will, with similar urgency, evaluate the available data in the coming weeks to swiftly make additional recommendations for other populations at risk, and people who received the Moderna and J&J vaccines," she told Friday's briefing.

Murthy made a similar promise.

"I want to speak directly to those who received Moderna and J&J," Murthy told the briefing.

"Your health matters just as much as other vaccine recipients, and we want to make sure that your protection against COVID is strong and reliable as well. That's why the FDA is working with Moderna and J&J to get and process their data as quickly as possible with the goal of making booster recommendations for Moderna and J&J recipients in the coming weeks. This is a high, high priority."

Why do people need them?

The protection provided by COVID-19 vaccines appears to wane over time, especially for people 65 and older, the CDC's Ruth Link-Gelles, who helps lead the CDC's Vaccine Effectiveness Team, said Friday.

She reviewed a series of studies looking at the overall effectiveness of vaccines in various groups between February and August and found similar patterns for Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines, both made using mRNA. Effectiveness started to wane a few months after people were fully vaccinated — defined as two weeks after their second dose of either vaccine.

"For individuals 65 plus, we saw significant declines in VE [vaccine effectiveness] against infection during Delta for the mRNA products," Link-Gelles told CDC vaccine advisers this past week.

"We also saw declines, particularly for Pfizer, for 65 up, that we're not seeing in younger populations. Finally there's evidence of waning VE against hospitalization in the Delta period," she said.

In a study of 4,000 healthcare personnel, first responders, and other frontline workers in eight places who were tested every week regardless of symptoms, vaccine protection against any infection declined from 91% pre-Delta to 66% during Delta.

A study called IVY looked at hospitalized adults in 18 states between March and August. Efficacy of Pfizer's vaccine waned from 91%, 14 to 120 days after full vaccination, to 77% three months or more after full vaccination. Moderna's vaccine effectiveness did not really wane, staying at 92% or 93% in that study.

Pfizer says its studies show booster doses bring people's immunity back up to what it was right after they got their second shots, or to even higher levels.

Do I need a doctor's note?

No. People are being asked to "self-attest" as to their eligibility for a booster vaccine.

But people should not cheat — especially when it comes to waiting six months or so before getting a booster, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

That's because a longer time period between prime — the first doses of vaccine — and boost helps the immune system mature. The longer one waits, the better the immune response.

"If you allow the immune response to mature over a period of a few months, you get much more of a bang out of the shot, as it were — an enhancement of your antibodies," he said.

BIDDEFORD, Maine — Students are returning to campuses as colleges reopen their doors. About one in four U.S. schools require those students to get vaccinated for COVID-19, following guidelines from the American College Health Association.

"American College Health Association believes that the best protection, the best way to bring our faculty, staff and students back safely, is to have a fully vaccinated campus," said Dr. Sarah Van Orman.

She helped create the COVID-19 protocols in use around the country.

"I think for most of us, it's about balancing a return to normal, and how do we do those safely? What mitigation systems do we need to have in place?" said Van Orman.

Vaccine mandates are working at the University of New England (UNE). The picturesque campus is home to nearly 4,000 students and 1,100 staff members.

For the university's president, James Herbert, it’s several thousand people he’s responsible for keeping safe from COVID-19.

“It’s been quite the roller coaster the past 18 months, a lot of ups and downs. But we’ve actually weathered the pandemic quite well overall,” said Herbert

He’s hoping the roller coaster ride, at least on campus, may be slowing down.

“Now, we’ve gotten to the point where we’re over 98% of our community is vaccinated and with just a handful of exemptions,” said Herbert.

It’s not just UNE. About 94% of students living on campus in the University of Maine system are vaccinated. Multiple other colleges in Maine are reporting near 100% vaccination rates as well.

The number is substantially higher than the overall rate for 18 to 24-year-olds in the U.S. Only 43.5% have received the vaccine.

Herbert says vaccine requirements are a driving force. A total of 34 of Maine’s 37 universities require students to get the shot.

“The majority of the students responded very well. They understood why we needed to have the vaccine,” said Herbert.

For medical school students Julia Marcus and Molly Cherny, it made the decision to come to school that much easier.

“I thought it was awesome that UNECOM or UNE, in general, was mandating vaccines just for the safety of all the students and all the faculty,” said Marcus

“I’m sure there was an exemption or two but for the most part, we never even questioned it in the past to have a hepatitis or a menegitis or measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, so it kind of was like I said, just another box for me to check off,” said Cherney.

But while schools with mandates have generally reported high vaccination rates, it's a mixed bag for the 3,000-plus schools that do not have a mandate in place. Many do not publicly report their vaccination rates.

"When we think about the vaccine rates at an institution, we have to understand where does that institution sit. What are the overall vaccine rates in the community," said Van Orman.

The University of Alabama system, with no vaccine requirement, is reporting a vaccination rate of around 58%.

But the University of Wisconsin, which also decided against a mandate, has vaccinated more than 90% of students.

"I think it's a good example of what you see when you have that strong vaccine infrastructure, and a community acceptance and awareness of the vaccine, versus a state where we have a longer way to go," said Van Orman.

Herbert has faced doubters on his campus. He says his team has responded with compassion.

“What we tried to do is meet people where they were at rather than hit them over the head with a bunch of facts and figures to listen to what their concerns were and to try and meet them where they were at,” said Herbert. “This is, right now, one of the safest places on planet earth that you could be in is our campus when we have almost 99% of the community vaccinated.”

A head-to-head study of all three authorized coronavirus vaccines in the United States finds the Moderna vaccine is slightly more effective than Pfizer's in real-life use in keeping people out of the hospital, and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine comes in third, but still provides 71% protection.

Pfizer's vaccine provided 88% protection against hospitalization, and Moderna's was 93% effective. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention led a nationwide study of vaccination involving more than 3,600 adults hospitalized for COVID-19 between March and August.

"Among U.S. adults without immunocompromising conditions, vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 hospitalization during March 11- August 15, 2021, was higher for the Moderna vaccine (93%) than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (88%) and the Janssen vaccine (71%)," the team wrote in the CDC's weekly report on death and disease, the MMWR.

"Although these real-world data suggest some variation in levels of protection by vaccine, all FDA-approved or authorized COVID-19 vaccines provide substantial protection against COVID-19 hospitalization."

They found that the biggest difference between the vaccine made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNtech's vaccine was driven by a decline that started about four months after people were fully vaccinated with Pfizer's vaccine.

"Differences in vaccine effectiveness between the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine might be due to higher mRNA content in the Moderna vaccine, differences in timing between doses (three weeks for Pfizer-BioNTech versus four weeks for Moderna), or possible differences between groups that received each vaccine that were not accounted for in the analysis," the team wrote.

"Vaccine effectiveness for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 91% at 14 -120 days after receipt of the second vaccine dose but declined significantly to 77% at more than 120 days," the team wrote.

Pfizer's and Moderna's vaccines both use genetic material called messenger RNA to deliver immunity, but they use differing doses and slightly different formulations. The Janssen vaccine uses an inactivated common cold virus called adenovirus — a viral vector — to carry genetic instructions into the body.

"A single dose of the Janssen viral vector vaccine had comparatively lower anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody response and vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 hospitalizations," the team said. "Understanding differences in vaccine effectiveness by vaccine product can guide individual choices and policy recommendations regarding vaccine boosters. All FDA-approved or authorized COVID-19 vaccines provide substantial protection against COVID-19 hospitalization."CDC worked with researchers across the country to study 3,689 patients at 21 hospitals in 18 states for the study. They also looked at antibodies in the blood of 100 healthy volunteers after they had been vaccinated with one of the three available vaccines.

"These real-world data suggest that the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine regimens provide more protection than does the one-dose Janssen viral vector vaccine regimen. Although the Janssen vaccine had lower observed vaccine effectiveness, one dose of Janssen vaccine still reduced risk for COVID-19-associated hospitalization by 71%," they wrote.

The study had limitations. "This analysis did not consider children, immunocompromised adults, or vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 that did not result in hospitalization," the team wrote. Plus, the volunteers were only followed for 29 weeks — just over six months.

Seven-year-old Clark McGinnity and his nine-year-old brother Henry are both participating in the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial.  

Right now, a child under 12 can't get a COVID vaccine unless they're part of a clinical trial. It comes down to dosing-balancing a shot's protection without causing severe side effects. 

"I don't think it's taking longer than it did on the adults," pediatric infectious disease specialist Mike Smith said. "But people need to understand that it's a whole separate set of studies because the dose is different."

We spoke with Dr. Michael smith. He's involved in the pediatric trials of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.

Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson researchers are still gathering data.  

Because children's immune systems are still growing, researchers study by age groups of five-to-12 years old, two-to-five years old, and two-to-six months old. 

Just like the adult COVID trials in previous months, they start with smaller phase one clinical trial groups to get the dosing right.  

"I'm a parent of two children who are both under 12, so I share this concern," Smith said. "I really wish my kids were vaccinated. However, I also want to make sure they have the right dose." 

Smith says the Pfizer dose for kids under 12 is about a third of the dose for everyone else. For Moderna, it's about a half of the full adult dose. 

Those phase one dosing trials are still monitoring longer-term safety data right now, as the phase two and three are underway, too.  

With those, half get a saline shot and the other half get the real thing. The double-blind studies are the credible gold standard. 

Charles Mugera's eight-year-old son, Christian is participating in the Moderna trial in Baltimore.  

"I think for the children, ultimately, what was the most appealing to them was the fact that they got their life back," he said.

Mugera – a doctor – gets the risks and the continued monitoring-a crucial piece of the vaccine timeline puzzle.  

In these trials, parents will follow up for months after their child's second vaccine, checking in daily to record any side effects like fever or soreness.   

Each of those check-ins means multiple data points. On top of blood draws and antibody numbers – all pieces the researchers, then drugmakers, then FDA will go through.

To request emergency authorization for kids under age 12, companies need to turn in four-to-six months of safety results. For the adults, only two months were needed. 

"I think the FDA is doing their job here," Smith said. "It's just that they're kind of stuck in a hard place because you're in the middle of a public health crisis."

One thing we haven't heard much about, when would something like nasal mists for kids – like we see for flu season, for example – be a possibility. 

Scientists say that would take much longer – a couple of years.  

This story was first reported by Lindsey Theis on Newsy.com.

Between the COVID-19 vaccines' two required doses, the clock is ticking.

Food and Drug Administration guidance indicates the vaccine's second dose should be administered three to four weeks after the initial dose, but Tri-State health officials and experts said there is no guarantee there will be enough supply to meet that timetable for the thousands who have already received their first dose.

"You're going to have a little competition for that seat," said Dr. O'Dell Owens, CEO of Interact for Health.

According to the FDA, an individual is 95% protected from contracting the disease if the Pfizer vaccine's second dose comes 21 days after the first; for the Moderna vaccine, that time period is 28 days. But with demand outpacing supply, clinics aren't giving vaccine recipients guarantees about when they can get the second dose.

Hamilton County Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman said there is some wiggle room.

"If you can't get your dose for a week later or even a couple weeks later, it is acceptable still to get your second dose," he told WCPO.

But he also added there is still uncertainty swirling around the vaccine.

"Unfortunately, all of the vaccine that's currently available has not been studied long enough to know all of the ins and outs of how the vaccine works," he said.

For people like Dorothy Darden, who feel hesitant about getting the vaccine, Kesterman said they have options.

"I really want to discuss it with my doctor more before I would even determine that I would to get it," Darden said.

Kesterman said, for now, the county is capable of administering second doses to county taxpayers who might have received their first dose elsewhere, but they have to register to do so.

Researchers expect vaccine supply to spike as soon as next month when a third vaccine, under development by Johnson & Johnson gets approval and begins distribution.

As more and more Americans receive the COVID-19 vaccine, some are sharing their excitement with friends and family by posting a selfie holding their vaccination card on social media. That may not be such a good idea, warns the Better Business Bureau.

The BBB reminds people the vaccination card contains personal information, and posting a picture of it on social media could mean that information is now available to anyone and everyone.

The consumer-focused organization says it’s not just personal information crooks might be after. Recent arrests in the U.K. have highlighted concerns about scammers selling fake vaccination cards online.

The BBB warns that by sharing an image of a real vaccination card, it could give scammers information they can use to create fake cards.

Rather than share an image of the vaccination card, consider sharing an image showing the arm where the shot was given, a smiling face inside the clinic, a vaccine sticker or other items that do not include personal information.

The BBB also recommends checking privacy settings on social media, and be cautious about participating in social media trends, even ones that ask about top concerts, movies or favorite cars. This kind of information is sometimes connected to a person's password.

Japan is suspending the use of about 1.63 million doses of Moderna vaccine after contamination was found in some unused vials.

The health ministry said the contamination was reported at multiple vaccination sites.

Some doses may have been administered but no adverse health effects have been reported.

The doses were produced in Spain.

The Japanese distributor Takeda Pharmaceutical suspended the doses manufactured in the same production line as a precaution and asked Moderna to investigate the problem.

The suspension raises the prospect of supply problems in Japan, which is relying on three foreign-developed vaccines for its COVID-19 inoculation campaign.

The suspension also comes amid one of the country's largest surges in cases since the start of the pandemic. On Wednesday, the government expanded its coronavirus state of emergency for a second week in a row.

Four new prefectures added to a separate "quasi-emergency" status, meaning that 33 of Japan's 47 prefectures are now under some type of emergency measures.

Members of the White House COVID response team say vaccinations are ramping up with six million people getting a shot in the past seven days. 

But while vaccinations are up, so are COVID case numbers and hospitalizations 

Officials are urging local leaders and private companies to enact more vaccine mandates now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full FDA approval.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has said we could see the beginning of the end of the pandemic next spring – but added vaccines are the best way to get there.

"Rather than focus on the situation of getting a specific timeline, I would like to appeal to this country – to the people in the country who are not vaccinated – to realize that we have the capability among ourselves to essentially cut down the time frame to getting the end of this pandemic very, very clearly by just listening to everything you have heard on this press conference," he said. "Get vaccinated and the time frame will be truncated dramatically."

This story was originally reported on Newsy.com.

The shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in the Tri-State has made headlines in recent weeks, but that only tells part of the story. In some cases, there are extra doses that, if not administered quickly enough, will become unusable.

"When we're scheduling vaccination appointments, we know going in that there will be a certain number of people who don't show up for those appointments for whatever reason," said Mike Samet with Hamilton County Public Health.

Samet said sometimes people get sick or they've already received the vaccination somewhere else and fail to cancel their appointment. In such cases, he said, his agency has reached out to law enforcement -- who do not yet appear on any of Ohio's vaccine-qualifying tiers.

"We will often seek out law enforcement in the neighborhood in which we're running the clinic, who has not yet been vaccinated, to make sure that they get the first call for vaccination," Samet said. "We can argue tiers and who goes in there all day long, but our men and women in blue deserve vaccination."

Other jurisdictions handle unused vaccine doses differently.

In Clermont County, public health officials said they will call the next in line on their waiting list. If they're short on time, they'll call from a list of people 65 and older who live nearby.

In Northern Kentucky, the regional health department there also has contacts nearby to take extra doses.

All health agencies with whom WCPO spoke Thursday suggested that anyone with a vaccine appointment they cannot make give as much advance notice as possible and to immediately remove one's name from a waiting list once they have received the vaccine.

Related video above: The Psychology Behind Vaccine Hesitancy

Do I need a booster if I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?

Probably at some point, but health officials still are collecting the data needed to decide.

With boosters being planned in the U.S. as early as the fall for those who got the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, recipients of the single-dose J&J jab might be wondering just how well their protection is holding up.

All the vaccines used in the U.S. — including the J&J vaccine — still are doing their job of preventing hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.

"I don't think there's any signal that the J&J vaccine is failing at its primary task," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Despite continued protection against severe disease, U.S. officials are planning to offer Pfizer and Moderna boosters eight months after the second shot based on evidence that effectiveness against infection wanes over time. Adding to the decision, the vaccines don't appear quite as strong against the highly contagious delta variant as they were against earlier versions of the virus.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said boosters "will likely be needed" for the J&J vaccine. Authorities expect more data to decide in the coming weeks.

That's in part because the J&J rollout didn't start until March, several months after Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations began. The J&J shot is made differently. And there's more data about how the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines fare against delta because they're more widely used in countries where the variant struck before its U.S. surge.

There is some real-world data showing J&J's shot holds up against the delta variant. A huge study of health workers in South Africa showed the vaccine remains highly effective against hospitalizations and death from the variant. And the vast majority of so-called "breakthrough" infections in vaccinated people were mild.

J&J has also presented lab data on virus-fighting antibodies that indicates its vaccine protects against the delta variant for eight months and counting. Another small lab study has raised questions about whether a two-dose approach would work better, an option J&J is studying.

A separate issue is whether people with severely weakened immune systems should get extra shots as part of their original vaccinations, since they don't respond as well to any vaccines. The government now recommends a third shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for organ transplant recipients and others in this group. But it's still collecting data before making a similar recommendation for another dose of the J&J vaccine.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — In terms of the COVID-19 vaccine, doctors are weighing in on the concept of delaying the second dose of the shot.

Dr. Bill Petri, an infectious diseases professor at the University of Virginia, has been studying the effects of COVID-19.

“We all need to be vaccinated so there's herd immunity that we can stop the pandemic,” Petri told WTKR.

He’s also keeping a close eye on the two-dose messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

“They're almost miraculous in their ability to protect us against COVID-19,” Petri said. “What we think the second dose is doing is to further develop the antibody response and help make it long-term.”

The CDC says the Pfizer doses should be administered three weeks apart, while Moderna's should be one month apart.

However, if the recommended interval isn't possible, the agency said the second dose may be administered up to six weeks, or 42 days, after the first dose.

“Under special circumstances, it's better to delay that couple of weeks than not do it at all,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said.

Fauci said U.S. data from Moderna and Pfizer doesn't support the move of a second dose delay.

“We will go by the science, which is dictated for us, the optimal way to get the 94-95% response, which is in fact, durable for the period of time that we've been following it,” Fauci said.

Petri believes the second dose is crucial and that the shots work best within that three- or four-week time frame.

“The second dose is like the icing on the cake. That's what's going to give you the 95% and lock that in,” he said. “Moderna did their study with four weeks apart. Pfizer did it three weeks apart. We're kind of scared to vary from that because we know what works. It's kind of like, ‘Don't fix it if it's not broke.”

While there is wiggle room, Petri told WTKR that it's important to stay on schedule as best as possible for vaccination for the best protection, especially with new variants of the virus in the U.S.

“If we miss that second dose, your antibody levels are going to be a little bit lower,” Petri said. “The more that you can adhere to the schedule, the better the chances that your antibody levels are going to be high enough to protect you, even against these new variants of the coronavirus.”

This story was first reported by Zak Dahlheimer at WTKR in Norfolk, Virginia.

Related video above: Moderna working to have COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 5 by early fall

Moderna has released its latest findings from a third-phase study of patients receiving its COVID-19 vaccine.

According to a release from the company, the data shows 93% efficacy six months after the second dose.

The Massachusetts-based company also said a study in its second phase "induced robust antibody responses" against the gamma, beta and delta variants of COVID-19 for three booster candidates. The company has submitted this data to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.

The company also has ongoing efficacy studies for adolescents aged 12 to 17 and for pediatric patients age 6 months to 11 years old.

Moderna announced Wednesday it is studying three different ways to combat a variant of the COVID-19 virus that was originally found in South Africa.

The South African variant has been of particular concern for public health officials given it is both more transmissible and current vaccines have been less effective combating it.

Moderna has administered millions of people with a two-shot coronavirus vaccine. The second dose is considered a “booster,” and comes nearly a month after the first shot is administered. Combined, the two doses provide 95% effectiveness against the coronavirus. But it appears the two combined doses are less effective against the South African variant.

Moderna is looking into a combined booster shot that would. It is also looking into a variant-specific booster. And finally, Moderna is studying the effects of the standard vaccine booster on the South African variant.

“We look forward to beginning the clinical study of our variant booster and are grateful for the NIH’s continued collaboration to combat this pandemic,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “As we seek to defeat COVID-19, we must be vigilant and proactive as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge. Leveraging the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are moving quickly to test updates to the vaccines that address emerging variants of the virus in the clinic. Moderna is committed to making as many updates to our vaccine as necessary until the pandemic is under control. We hope to demonstrate that booster doses, if necessary, can be done at lower dose levels, which will allow us to provide many more doses to the global community in late 2021 and 2022 if necessary.”

The packing and shipping of a third COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in the U.S. is underway. Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot will start going into Americans’ arms in a matter of days.

Nearly 4 million doses are going out just this week. That's all of the current supply.

The number of doses states are getting is proportional to population, like with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Johnson & Johnson’s CEO says he's confident the company will be able to deliver on its promise of 100 million doses by June, and up to 1 billion by the end of the year.

“Johnson &Johnson built its vaccine from a virus that causes the common cold, known as adenovirus,” said Dr. Leo Nissola, a COVID Act Now medical advisor.

The science behind Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine and the Moderna and Pfizer two-shot vaccines is different, but not new.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine takes a small amount of genetic material from the coronavirus and combines it with a weakened version of a common cold virus called adenovirus. That combination doesn't make us sick.

Adenovirus technology was also used to make Ebola and tuberculosis vaccines.

Pfizer and moderna use mRNA technology, which uses a genetic code to make the antigen protein specific to COVID-19. This code tells our body to make the antigen itself, prompting an immune response.

“The messenger RNA platform allows for scientists and drug makers to update the coding on these vaccines sooner, faster and at a different pace than adenovirus vectored vaccine, so in that sense, should we need a boost, our immune shot very likely will come from those mRNA based platforms,” said Dr. Nissola.

Pfizer and Moderna are already testing a third, booster shot to protect against COVID-19 variants.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson may have the advantage of one and done for now, since it only requires a single dose. It can be stored for months in a refrigerator.

All three were found to be highly effective in preventing severe disease and death.

“It makes me hopeful that by summer, we will be able to vaccinate millions and millions of people and have a little bit more normalcy back,” said Dr. Nissola.

The J&J vaccine is also expected to boost vaccination equity since it's only one dose and is easier to store.

A Canadian advisory committee says Canadians who got the AstraZeneca shot for their first vaccine dose should not get the second one.

It says they should get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for their second shot instead.

The vice-chair of the board says new evidence suggests responses are better when the AstraZeneca vaccine is followed by an mRNA vaccine and said the new guidance also takes into account the marginal risk of blood clots associated with AstraZeneca.

However, she said anyone who got two shots of AstraZeneca can feel confident they are protected.

This story originally reported by Simon Kaufman and Jay Strubberg on Newsy.com