FDA vote on vaccine boosters puts West Virginia's plan to rollout shots to all on hold

“We’ll wait for the FDA and the CDC, and hope they still OK boosters for some parts of our population,” Marsh said.

Shortly after the conclusion on the press conference, the FDA announced the results of a second vote, which endorsed the extra shots for those who are 65 or older or run a high risk of severe disease.

In August, President Joe Biden announced all Americans were recommended to get a third shot around eight months after receiving their second one in order to shore up protection against the highly infectious Delta variant.

The Biden administration set Monday as the hopeful start of the booster shot rollout, but Justice and members of his COVID-19 task force have repeatedly pressed federal officials to give the state approval to go ahead and start administering the shots.

Marsh recently said vaccine boosters will help boost protection for the elderly and those with other underlying health conditions.

“Of course, we want to immunize all we can with first and second vaccines, but we also want to start to address our most vulnerable — our nursing home population, our elder population, particularly people with other illnesses who got their vaccines really early in the pandemic,” he said. “I’m very much of a proponent for boosters for the appropriate groups of people.”

A significant number of West Virginians will benefit from a third vaccine dose, Justice said recently.

“The general public in West Virginia is older, and the general public in West Virginia is probably carrying with them more chronic illnesses — whether it be diabetes or heart condition or whatever it may be,” he said. “Our general public, we have been the target of this from the get-go. To protect us in every way that we can possibly protect us, I think if there is any state out there that needs the booster for the general public, it’s probably us.”

According to data from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, 11,302 fully vaccinated West Virginians had received an additional vaccine dose as of Friday.

Those shots, administered at local health departments and pharmacies, have been given to people with “moderately to severely compromised immune systems” and were authorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Aug. 13.

People currently recommended to receive an additional dose include some cancer patients, organ transplant recipients, stem-cell transplant recipients, patients with moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency, patients with advanced or untreated HIV infection and people taking medications to suppress the immune system.

In other COVID-19 news, officials announced the expansion of access to monoclonal antibody treatments in the state.

The treatments will be available at 30 additional locations in West Virginia, said James Hoyer, who leads the state’s vaccine distribution efforts.

“To include pharmacies, local health departments, as well as local health centers to make those available,” he said. “For example, an individual could go to a local health department, a local health center, and get tested, triaged and have the availability of the antibodies if that is the appropriate call of the medical professionals there.”

The infusion treatment, which can help lessen the symptoms of COVID-19, thereby preventing the need for hospitalization, is not a substitute for full vaccination against the virus, Hoyer said.

“The antibodies are not a replacement for the vaccine, but they are a life-saving tool, particularly if we can get to the individual at the appropriate time.”