Dr. Stephanie Silvera Discusses COVID Booster Vaccines for FOX5

New York City officials urged adults to consider getting a COVID-19 vaccine booster, and Governor Kathy Hochul is also pushing for more New Yorkers to get that extra shot. The urgency comes as COVID-19 infections are increasing in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

“We are now at a point where we are more than six months out from most people having gotten their first dose,” Dr. Stephanie Silvera, Professor in the Public Health Department said. “We know that some of that vaccine protection does begin to wane and so by increasing the number of people who have that booster, especially going into the holidays, we can hopefully not have the same spike in cases that we saw last year.”

Dr. Silvera said federal health officials are taking their time in recommending all adults to get boosters because of wanting to really look at the data.

“I think some of the concern was, ‘Does everybody really need the booster? Where is the science?'” she said. “We are increasingly finding out that those boosters are really helpful in bringing the vaccine efficacy back up to that 95[%] or higher rate and so I think that there was a certain level of concern around safety.”

She also added that the CDC and FDA want to make sure that enough doses are available for everybody that needs them.

“We wanted to make sure that people who hadn’t gotten their first dose still had the opportunity to get that first dose,” Dr. Silvera said. “I think that we are now.”