Pfizer COVID vaccine wins full FDA approval. Will that boost rates in Fresno, Valley?
In Fresno County and across most of the central San Joaquin Valley, the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech represents well over half of the nearly 1.8 million doses distributed in the region since mid-December 2020.
That proportion is likely to rise after the U.S. Food & Drug Administration made it the first coronavirus vaccine to win full approval for giving to people ages 16 and older. The Pfizer vaccine had previously been given under the FDA’s emergency use authorization, along with vaccine products from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
The FDA announced the approval on Monday.
In Fresno County, almost 939,000 vaccine doses have been administered into the arms of residents to protect against COVID-19. Of that number, more than 505,000 doses, or 53.7%, have been the Pfizer product. Moderna vaccines accounted for 42.6% of doses delivered. Both the Pfizer and Moderna products require a two-dose regimen in which people wait several weeks before their first and second shot before they are considered “fully vaccinated.”
The third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is a one-shot product, but accounts for fewer than 34,000 shots, or 3.6% locally.
Earlier this month, the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommended that people with compromised immune systems, from organ transplants or other autoimmune deficiencies, should receive a third booster dose of vaccine. So far, only the Pfizer product is approved for such booster doses.
Federal health officials indicated last week that third-dose boosters will be recommended for others starting in September, eight months after people received their second doses, based on research that suggests a drop-off in immune response as time passes since full vaccination.
The full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine comes as demand for vaccines has generally been stagnant in Fresno County and the Valley over the past few months, even as the rate of new cases soars. Statewide, 54.4% of California’s 40 million residents are now fully vaccinated – meaning they are at least two weeks past their second Moderna or Pfizer dose or the single shot of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
But in the Valley, the vaccination rates remain considerably lower – from under 43% of residents in Fresno County to less than 30% in Kings County. In every Valley county except for Fresno, at least half of the full population remains totally unvaccinated with even one dose.
Monday’s announcement also comes as a growing number of government agencies and private companies are imposing requirements on their employees to get fully vaccinated; those who aren’t are increasingly being required to get weekly COVID-19 tests to show that they are not infected with the virus.
“For weeks we have watched cases go up at an alarming pace among individuals who are not vaccinated while the vaccinated are largely protected, especially against severe and long-term illness,” Dr. Tomas Aragon, director of the California Department of Public Health, said Monday. “If you are not vaccinated, let this be the milestone that gets you there.”
On Twitter, President Joe Biden expressed a similar sentiment on Monday.
“If you are one of the millions of Americans who have said that you will get the shot when it had full FDA approval — that has now happened,” he said. “The moment you have been waiting for is here — and the time to get vaccinated is today.”
On Monday, the same day that the FDA announced the Pfizer approval, the Fresno County Department of Public Health reported nearly 300 new COVID-19 cases, in addition to 450 the previous day.
Over Sunday and Monday, a total of 742 new confirmed coronavirus infections were reported, bringing the total cases in Fresno County to more than 112,000 since the first local cases were identified in March 2020. Of those, 1,759 deaths are blamed on COVID-19 and the respiratory complications it causes.
Kings, Madera and Mariposa counties also reported new cases on Monday.
Health officials in Kings County reported 78 cases on Sunday and 75 on Monday, 25,541 to date. No additional deaths were reported, so the total to date remains at 258.
Madera County’s first update since Friday included 48 cases on Saturday, 53 on Sunday and 30 on Monday, for 131 over the weekend and 18,034 to date, including 249 fatalities.
Mariposa County’s Monday update included 40 new cases since Friday, for a total of 740 since March 2020. Of that total, 10 people have died.
Across Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties, the cumulative cases to date amount to almost 243,859, with a death toll of 3,630.
This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 3:10 PM.
