AHA, AMA, ANA Applaud Decision to Allow Health Care Professionals Access to Pfizer Vaccine Booster

The following statement is attributable to:
American Hospital Association
American Medical Association
American Nurses Association

“We applaud the recent actions of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allowing access to a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster dose for nurses, physicians and others working in health care settings. We support every effort to protect the health and safety of those who are at higher risk for infection due to potential occupational exposure.

At a time when our hospitals and health systems are seeing surging COVID-19 cases and as we ask our front-line health care professionals to continue to respond day-in and day-out, access to booster doses will provide an increase in protection. This action demonstrates a commitment to support health care professionals as they continue to care for patients in every community across the country. While COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against severe disease remains high, health care professionals and other essential workers with even mild illness often cannot work. The agencies’ decision was based on emerging evidence that vaccine effectiveness against infection is waning among health care professionals, who received their vaccines early in the vaccination program, and a booster dose increases immune response. We look forward to data on the effectiveness and safety of Moderna and J&J booster shots in the coming weeks.

We continue to urge nurses, physicians, all health care professionals, and the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and support consistently applied vaccination requirements for all those in the health care workforce. Collectively, these actions are necessary to help mitigate the impact of variants that continue to stall efforts to bring an end to this pandemic.”

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Contact:       Colin Milligan, cmilligan@aha.org

About the American Hospital Association
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA advocates on behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides insight and education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at www.aha.org.

About the American Medical Association
The American Medical Association is the physicians’ powerful ally in patient care. As the only medical association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies and other critical stakeholders, the AMA represents physicians with a unified voice to all key players in health care. The AMA leverages its strength by removing the obstacles that interfere with patient care, leading the charge to prevent chronic disease and confront public health crises, and driving the future of medicine to tackle the biggest challenges in health care. For more information, visit ama-assn.org.
 
About the American Nurses Association
The American Nurses Association (ANA) is the premier organization representing the interests of the nation's 4.3 million registered nurses. ANA advances the profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting a safe and ethical work environment, bolstering the health and wellness of nurses, and advocating on health care issues that affect nurses and the public. ANA is at the forefront of improving the quality of health care for all. For more information, visit www.nursingworld.org. For high-resolution images of the ANA logo or photos of ANA leadership, please click here.