Fully vaccinated Americans ‘don’t need booster shot’ for Delta variant: CDC

If you are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, you don’t need a booster shot to protect against the Delta variant, the US government says.

The CDC and the FDA teamed up to issue a reassuring statement after Pfizer announced it was developing a booster shot against what is now the country’s dominant strain.

The Thursday evening press release said inoculated Americans were “protected from severe disease and death, including from the variants currently circulating the country.”

The unusual after-hours joint statement comes as Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE said they plan to ask federal regulators to authorize a booster dose within a month.

Pfizer’s announcement came days after Israel’s health ministry said the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing both infection and symptomatic disease has dropped to 64 percent.