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Many scientists say that vaccinated people probably won’t need it booster shots soon. Some still take it.

They go to local pharmacies, other states, and even other countries – wherever there is no record of getting vaccinated – to get extra doses out of concern. Delta variant or because they fear that their protection will lose their effectiveness. news on thursday Israel would give them to some old people. seems to encourage the trend.

“You’re not getting enough, that’s my feeling,” said retired geology professor Ida Thompson, who received the Pfizer vaccine a few weeks ago in the United Kingdom, months after receiving two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. “Bring it on.”

With six grandchildren, Dr. Thompson said the decision to get a booster was at that moment. While visiting his family in Florida, where he was taking a coronavirus test at a pharmacy, he saw that the pharmacy was offering a vaccine.

When a pharmacy worker asked if this was the first or second shot, he said first. Dr. “Because it was my first Pfizer,” Thompson said. “It was pretty clear to me that AZ plus Pfizer was a good idea,” he added. Benefits of mixing AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

Does the booster provide extra protection?

Maybe, but it’s too early to tell, at least according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC did not allow supporting shots, but There is growing consensus in the Biden administration He said people aged 65 and older or those with compromised immune systems would benefit from a third shot.

Pfizer and BioNTech, who invented and partnered with Pfizer to develop the vaccine, reported that the third shot of their vaccine increased blood levels of antibodies to various versions of the coronavirus, including the highly contagious Delta variant. And some research has shown that mixing different types of vaccines stronger immune response more than just one brand.

Israel on Thursday announced that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s health care providers start making third Pfizer injections From Sunday to people aged 60 and over. To be eligible, they must have received their second dose more than five months ago.

But some researchers and public health officials have warned that much of this data is preliminary and people should not assume that boosters are necessary. Two shots of Pfizer or Moderna Offers solid and lasting protection against serious illness and death. Johnson and Johnson said the company’s data It shows that the vaccine is 85 percent effective against serious diseases caused by the Delta variant, and protects those who receive the vaccine against hospitalization and death.

An infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Krutika Kuppalli said many of her patients who have the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are asked if they need to get an additional vaccine. This vaccine, like AstraZeneca’s Less effective than mRNA vaccines.

It’s not unreasonable for these patients to think that, he tells them.

However, Dr. Kuppalli told his patients that data on possible side effects remain fuzzy, explaining that the research is not yet conclusive. “We actually want science to guide our policies,” he said.

Terri Givens, a professor at McGill University in Quebec, who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March, said she was considering making the vaccine but didn’t want to get in the way of research.

“I don’t want to do this because it might work,” said Professor Givens, 56, who teaches political science. “I want to do it conscientiously where my doctor says okay.”

Given the decentralized system for booking vaccines in the United States, several people said it was easy to get the vaccine, even though it wasn’t technically allowed.

In vaccine emergency permits, the Food and Drug Administration only allowed two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine and a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The FDA would have to change that mandate or approve vaccines outright before the CDC can recommend boosters. If fully approved, then doctors will have more range of motion prescribing a booster for their patients.

In statements, Walgreens and CVS pharmacies, which have vaccinated hundreds of thousands of Americans, said they do not offer a booster vaccine.

Trevor Achilles, 27, who is vulnerable to Covid-19 because he had a kidney transplant, said he was having trouble making an appointment at CVS for his third vaccine, even though his doctor recommended one in addition to two doses of the vaccine. Pfizer already had it.

He was finally able to make an appointment Thursday for the Moderna vaccine at a local pharmacy in Charlottesville, Va., where he lives. “I am very excited,” said Mr Achilles, the dishwasher. “I’m incredibly vulnerable and I don’t want to risk it all the way to Delta.”

What about ethics?

Experts said it fell into a gray area. Ideally, leftover vaccines in rich countries should be countries with low inventory, rather than people who want an extra dose, Dr. Kuppalli said.

“Before we start talking about people getting a third dose of vaccine, we need to make sure everyone can get a dose of vaccine,” he said.

Erin Matson, who got a shot of Moderna on Sunday after she had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine once, said she was concerned about the possibility of getting a dose from someone who hasn’t yet been vaccinated.

But with many unused vaccines are thrown away, given vaccine rejection in the United States, he said he thought it was unlikely.

“I’m not getting it from someone who isn’t vaccinated,” said Ms. Matson, 41, who lives in the Washington DC area. “I get it from a dumpster.”

Ms. Matson, director of a nonprofit organization, said she was worried about getting the highly contagious Delta variant and infecting her 8-year-old daughter. He got his booster shot at a pharmacy and was relieved that no one asked him if he had the vaccine.

Maureen Kelley, member of the WHO’s Covid-19 research ethics committee, said at the policy level it was embarrassing that governments of high-income countries focused on distributing booster vaccines. only 1.1 percent of people in poor countries received at least one dose.

He said everyone with a booster vaccine adds to the ignorance about vaccine disparities.

Professor of bioethics in the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford. “If I decide to buy a booster, I think I am complicit in the decisions of my government or pharmaceutical companies,” Kelley said. “I don’t think we can easily separate individual decisions from such more policy-level decisions.”

Another bioethicist, Hon-Lam Li, deputy director of the center for bioethics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said he sees a more important problem: It could be argued that avoiding vaccines is unethical because it puts the lives of others at risk. He said he doesn’t see ethical issues where patients are vulnerable or where doctors recommend a supplement.

What about the fourth shot? Retired geologist in Edinburgh, Dr. Thompson said he would think about it when he returned to Florida a few months later.

“If I thought it would improve my immunity even more,” he said, “I certainly would.”