Anthony Fauci: Coronavirus Booster Will Be Part of ‘Standard Regimen’

White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci believes that booster shots will be a part of the “standard regimen” for coronavirus vaccinations to fight the ongoing pandemic.

“I believe it’s extremely important for people to get boosters, and I am hoping very soon we will see a situation where there won’t be any confusion about who should and should not get boosters,” Fauci said in an interview with Axios. “In my opinion boosters are ultimately going to become a part of the standard regimen and not just a bonus.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures show that 36 percent of Americans 65 and older have received a coronavirus booster jab.

Earlier this month, Fauci declared that data out of Israel shows a booster shot for all adults is “absolutely essential” to help bring an end to the pandemic.

“When you look at the data from Israel, it’s very clear that [the booster] reverses some of the waning effects that you see in people who have been vaccinated for six months or more,” Fauci told i24news’ The Daily podcast. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases added that the shots for vaccinated adults “are going to be an absolutely essential component of our response. Not a bonus, not a luxury, but an absolutely essential part of the program.”

Pfizer recently asked federal regulators to allow boosters of its COVID-19 vaccine for individuals 18 years of age or older. Boosters could restore protection against symptomatic infection to roughly 95 percent in those who had had the company’s first two-dose vaccine series, with similar side effects, Pfizer’s latest study says.

FDA spokesperson Alison Hunt has said that the agency will review Pfizer’s application “as expeditiously as possible.” She stopped short of offering a timeline for such a decision.

The Biden administration had originally envisioned boosters for all adults, but faced a stinging setback in September when the FDA’s scientific advisers rejected extra Pfizer doses for everyone. The panel wasn’t convinced that young healthy people needed another dose, particularly when most of the world’s population remains unvaccinated, and instead recommended boosters just for certain groups — one of a series of decisions about extra doses for all three of the vaccines used in the U.S.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.