100 Million Americans Eligible for Booster Shots

[canyonwalker]

The CDC approved Covid-19 booster shots for the Moderna and J&J vaccines Thursday night. Approximately 100 million Americans are now eligible for a booster. Example news coverage: CNBC article 23 Oct 2021; CNN.com article 21 Oct 2021.

Eligibility differs by which shot or shots a person got originally, though. For the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines it's:

• All people 65+
• People 18+ with underlying conditions that increase their likelihood of Covid complications
• People 18+ who live or work in a long-term care facility, homeless shelter and prison or other congregate setting
• People 18+ with front-line jobs that put them at higher risk of Covid exposure

For J&N recipients the list is simpler:

•  Everyone 18+.

Presumably this corresponds to the J&N single-shot initial vaccination having been less effective overall than the others' two-shot regimen.

Hawk started looking for an appointment to get a booster shot Thursday night. I got mine 2 weeks ago since I had the Pfizer shots initially. Hawk is on "Team Moderna". Clinics weren't offering Moderna appointments yet. I figure they need a few days to get organized around the new policy. I recall it taking several days after the Pfizer booster approval before clinics got their stuff together to start delivering additional shots.

Update: It took persistence but Hawk got her shot today. Previous updates to this blog entry are in this new entry linked.

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[canyonwalker]

Update(s): Hawk check and rechecked multiple times for appointment availability. She traded up from getting her shot in 10 days to getting it in 3 days to getting it today! Details in separate blog post.