Health officials said Wednesday, Jan. 5, that they won’t change the definition of fully vaccinated to include COVID-19 booster shots even as the omicron variant — which seems to be able to transmit and evade vaccines more easily — spreads throughout the United States.
The decision comes as officials had been weighing a change to the definition given the evidence that booster doses increase a person’s protection against omicron. Some health experts had also pushed for the change.
But Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing that a person will still be considered fully vaccinated if they’ve received their primary vaccine series: two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or a single-dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
