Citing the ongoing risk the coronavirus continues to pose to millions of Americans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday recommended that adults aged 65 and older and those with weakened immune systems get another dose of the latest booster vaccine. , which debuted last. fall.

The approval followed a one-day discussion by CDC special advisers. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the booster plan on Tuesday, and the CDC’s recommendation is the latest administrative step. Beneficiaries will be able to receive booster doses immediately.

Federal health officials are also phasing out the original vaccination schemes created by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, revoking their licenses in the United States: instead of requiring an initial series of two vaccines, unvaccinated people will now only need one dose reformulated or “bivalent” COVID vaccine, which should be considered vaccinated.

Limited data on reformulated vaccines suggest that in the elderly, vaccines provide additional protection against severe illness and death from COVID, although protection declines rapidly in the weeks following vaccination.

According to the Census Bureau, there are about 53 million adults aged 65 and over in the United States, which is about 16 percent of the population. Also, 7 million Americans have a weak immune system due to disease or medication.

ABOUT 250 people in the US so far they die from COVID related causes every daythe vast majority of whom are over 70 or have weakened immune systems.

The median age of those hospitalized is 75, according to the CDC. However, only about 43% of adults aged 65 years and older have received booster therapy so far.

Today, most Americans have developed some form of immunity to the virus, either as a result of previous infections or vaccinations, or both. The new guidelines recognize this but allow those who are still at high risk of contracting the virus to protect themselves and do so for free.

“The universal policy was simple but not optimal,” said Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician and public health specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “The new scheme recognizes that there is currently an extremely wide range of COVID risk, from mild to enormous, depending on who you are.”