During a press briefing Friday afternoon, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced the definition of fully vaccinated has changed and that the agency is "pivoting" its language on how it approaches boosters. This language change includes ditching the use of "fully vaccinated" and replacing it with "up to date."
"What we are really are working to do is pivot our language so that everyone is as up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines as they personally could be, should be based on when they got their last vaccine. So importantly right now we are pivoting our language, we really want to make sure people are up to date. That means if you recently got your second dose you're not eligible for a booster. You're up to date. If you are eligible for a booster and you haven't gotten it, you're not up to date and you need to get your booster in order to be up to date," Walensky said.
WALENSKY: "We're pivoting our language...you need to get your booster in order to be up to date." pic.twitter.com/l0frQEY3V1
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 21, 2022
Meanwhile, as the FDA and CDC push for boosters among children, the World Health Organization is pushing back.
"There is no evidence at present that healthy children and adolescents need booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Tuesday," Reuters reports. "Speaking at a news briefing, she said that while there seems to be some waning of vaccine immunity over time against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus, more research needs to be done to ascertain who needs booster doses."