Secretive ‘booster dosing’ jumps in US amid resurging Covid-19 cases

A growing number of Americans taking a booster shot even though U.S. health authorities have yet to issue recommendation for a booster in the wake of resurging Covid-19 cases.

The Associated Press reported Saturday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received more than 900 reports on booster shots from medical institutions. The number was reported voluntarily by those medical institutions, which suggests that the actual number of Americans who have taken a booster dose could be higher.

The situation is possible in the U.S. apparently because the country has sufficient supply of vaccines, while health authorities loosely manage vaccination records. Jina Welch, a 26-year-old woman in Maine, took a third shot after claiming to the hospital that it was her first dosing. Welch, who is suffering from asthma and liver disease, said, “I thought that I should protect myself. I could not afford to wait further for (the health authority’s) recommendation for a booster dose for another six months or a year.”

A 60-something man in Missouri also took his third dose at a neighborhood pharmacy in May. The man provided his personal information, but the pharmacy only came to know that he had been vaccinated through the computer system only after administering the third dose.

The U.S., which started vaccination against Covid-19 in December last year, will likely soon announce a strategy for booster dosing for the elderly who took the jab relatively long time ago. The World Health Organization called on rich countries for a coronavirus booster shot moratorium for countries where vaccination rates remain low.


Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com