With immunocompromised individuals now cleared to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, U.S. experts this week are expected to recommend vaccine boosters for all Americans, regardless of age, eight months after they received their second dose of the shot.
But postings on social media and even some published editorials claim individuals are already taking it upon themselves to get a booster shot. Some posts suggest a few individuals have even received multiple booster doses, including one viral picture purporting to show a vaccine card with 15 doses.
THE QUESTION
Is vaccination card showing 15 COVID-19 doses real?
THE SOURCES
- Dr. Jon Kantor, epidemiologist, Penn Center For Global Health
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
THE ANSWER
No, vaccination card showing 15 COVID-19 doses is not real and appears to have been intended as a joke by initial poster.
WHAT WE FOUND
A closer examination of the image itself – and the original source of the image – reveals it was digitally altered to be a joke.
The picture in question, posted here in this Tweet, appears to shows a CDC vaccine card with text over it that reads, “just got my 15th dose.” The tweet has been shared and liked hundreds of thousands of times.
But upon closer examination of the image, the edges of the card aren’t straight and don’t line up. Several commenters also pointed out that the doses were administered just a few days apart from each other. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends individuals receive “2 doses 21 days apart.”
An authentic card from the CDC also only has just two lines for doses and two lines labeled other.
Using Twitter, we were able to find where the digitally altered photo originated. It was posted by user Dan White who, according to his bio, is the cohost of an improv comedy podcast.
Among the multiple responses to the tweet of the digitally altered photo is comment from White himself thanking a user who complimented his editing skills.
While this was clearly meant as a joke, the idea of a COVID booster shot is a very real thing.
Federal health officials continue to evaluate whether extra shots for the vaccinated may be needed as soon as this fall. Health care workers, nursing home residents and the elderly could be among the first prioritized to receive them.
The Food and Drug Administration announced last week that people with weakened immune systems can get an additional dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines to better protect themselves as the delta variant continues to spread.
Florida-based epidemiologist Dr. Jon Kantor, who is also with the Penn Center for Global Health, says there’s a very good reason immunocompromised individuals, along with the elderly, should be considered first to receive an additional dose.
“We know that people who are immunosuppressed do not mount as effective a response so that third dose could be really crucial for them to get them up to par with someone who had their second dose,” he said. “Same thing with people who are very elderly—younger people tend to have a more vigorous immune response so that’s why elderly is another group you’d look to prioritize them.”
Israel has been the first nation to widely roll out COVID booster shots. So far more than half a million people over 60 years old in the country have gotten one.
But there’s growing debate over whether that’s the right approach.
The World Health Organization earlier in August said countries should hold off on boosters and prioritize people in other parts of the world who still haven’t even gotten their first dose.
Health officials say that’s the quickest way to end the pandemic.
The WHO’s director says the goal is to have at least 10 percent of the population in every country vaccinated by the end of September.