OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel took a massive leap forward Thursday on getting millions more Americans an additional Pfizer coronavirus shot.
Over 100 million Americans received the first two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and yesterday the panel voted 9–6 to recommend a third Pfizer shot to 11 million of those people who are older or immunocompromised.
Those aged 65 and up, people living in long-term care facilities, and people between the ages of 50 and 65 with underlying medical conditions are now eligible for that third booster shot, as long as they received Pfizer shots initially.
Meegan Zickus is one of an estimated 500 people worldwide suffering from necrotizing autoimmune myopathy, and part of an estimated 5 percent of American adults who are immunocompromised.
“I have absolutely no immune system at this point,” she said. “You’re talking about organ-transplant patients, people with cancer, people with rare illnesses, autoimmune diseases, diabetes — this is a big section of our population and we live next door to you.”
Zickus already received her third dose of the Pfizer vaccine after jumping online and discovering her local Family Fare was administering the doses, similar to CVS and Meijer.
In a separate decision, a CDC advisory panel decided not to recommend a third dose for those whose jobs put them at risk — frontline workers like doctors and nurses, teachers and grocery store employees — for now.