A needed boost in COVID fight

If we have learned anything about COVID-19 over the hard year-and-a-half past, it’s the importance of staying ahead of the deadly virus.

That is the crucial context for the booster shot announcement Wednesday from the Biden administration.

"The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time following the initial doses of vaccination," pronounced a collection of Department of Health and Human Services leaders in a sobering statement. Combined with the dangerous and highly transmissible delta variant, the health and medical experts said that "we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease."

Hence the need for booster shots starting next month for recipients of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, pending a Food and Drug Administration review. Johnson & Johnson boosters are likely to follow. The expectation is that people would get a booster shot to strengthen their immune response eight months after their initial regimen ends.

Americans might understandably be frustrated with this development. Early results from the vaccines had been downright extraordinary, and life was getting almost back to normal for many protected by the shots.

But boosters were always a real possibility. They are common practice to protect against other maladies. The HHS officials noted Wednesday that the vaccines continue to be "remarkably effective" in reducing the risk of severe disease and death. The purpose of boosters is to stay ahead of the virus and shore up defenses that can erode with time. This is not a vaccine failure. Rather, health and medical experts are gathering and analyzing fluctuating data, adapting to real-world conditions, and making recommendations when situations change. That’s the history of scientific advancement, or should be. More worrisome than a booster shot would be a federal government that did nothing as ICU beds filled across the country, which is happening now.

A booster rollout, however, comes with countless complications that need serious attention. Federal, state and county officials need to maintain a focus on convincing unvaccinated people to get their initial doses, since they are most at risk and give the virus too much room to spread and potentially mutate. Then there are the logistical challenges of getting additional shots into arms.

Booster shots here should not take away from the moral and practical need to get first shots to parts of the world almost entirely unprotected, where COVID-19 is spreading rapidly and could return even more resilient to our shores. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden pointed to our substantial stockpile of doses and vowed that "we can take care of America and help the world at the same time." That double task will be crucial.

So will Americans’ willingness to accept a boost. Carefully adapting to the latest data and staying ahead of the virus is the only way to return to a reasonably normal life.