According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), immunocompromised people may require up to a fourth round of the coronavirus mRNA vaccine.

The CDC had already approved a third injection for these patients if they were over the age of 18, but it wasn’t until last October that they extended that authorization to a larger group of people.

The CDC has now said that those who are immunosuppressed may receive an additional booster dose at least six months after receiving the third (of an mRNA vaccine, such as Pfizer or Moderna).

This fourth dose would have a new goal: to fight waning immunity. It would serve the same purpose as a booster shot given six months after the initial vaccination to patients without immune deficits. 

According to the CDC, around 2.7 percent of adults in the United States are immunocompromised.

These patients include those undergoing treatment for leukaemia or malignant tumors, organ and stem cell transplants, persons with advanced HIV, and those taking corticosteroids or other immune-suppressing medications.

“We know that six months after you reached a good level of protection, your protection has waned … and we need to boost that,” said Dr. Dorry Segev, professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University, who is studying Covid vaccine responses in immunocompromised people. “That’s for people with normal immune systems and people who are immunocompromised.” 

“Out of the 11 million immunocompromised people in this country, some of them were fine with two doses,” Segev said.

“Some of them were not fine with three doses. Some of them do need a fourth dose.”

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