AHA, AMA, ANA applaud decision to allow health care professionals access to Pfizer vaccine booster

The AHA, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association today applauded the recent decision by the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to allow access to a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster dose for nurses, physicians and others working in health care settings.

“We support every effort to protect the health and safety of those who are at higher risk for infection due to potential occupational exposure,” the organizations said in a joint statement. “At a time when our hospitals and health systems are seeing surging COVID-19 cases and as we ask our front-line health care professionals to continue to respond day-in and day-out, access to booster doses will provide an increase in protection. This action demonstrates a commitment to support health care professionals as they continue to care for patients in every community across the country. While COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against severe disease remains high, health care professionals and other essential workers with even mild illness often cannot work. The agencies’ decision was based on emerging evidence that vaccine effectiveness against infection is waning among health care professionals, who received their vaccines early in the vaccination program, and a booster dose increases immune response. We look forward to data on the effectiveness and safety of Moderna and J&J booster shots in the coming weeks.

“We continue to urge nurses, physicians, all health care professionals, and the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and support consistently applied vaccination requirements for all those in the health care workforce. Collectively, these actions are necessary to help mitigate the impact of variants that continue to stall efforts to bring an end to this pandemic.”