The CNBC News reporter Nate Rattner writes that more Americans are reportedly getting Covid vaccine boosters than first doses in rush for third shots. “About 8.9 million boosters overall have been administered as of Wednesday, covering 4.7% of all fully vaccinated Americans and more than 12% of the immunized 65 and older population.”

Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rattner writes “An average of 362,000 people a day got boosters over the past week, about 57% more than the 231,000 people per day who started their first doses”.

It’s kind of reminiscent of those early days when over-65 qualified in a priority group and we saw people flooding websites and pharmacies and clinics.

Dr. Kavita Patel, a primary care physician in Washington (source: CNBC News)

Dr. Annamaria Macaluso Davidson, who practices at Memorial Hermann Medical System, a group of 17 hospitals in Houston, told CNBC News “Those that are coming in and getting the booster vaccine are very comfortable with the vaccine, understand the benefit and have seen the benefit”.

According to Annamaria, the Delta variant fueled surge in Covid infection around the country is reportedly convincing many unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated.

“Those that are just coming in and starting, they would have had hesitancies for different reasons, and maybe finally consulted with a physician to understand that getting the vaccine outweighs any risk, and far outweighs the risk of getting Covid.”

• More Americans are getting Covid vaccine boosters than first doses in rush for third shots
• More than 6 million Americans have already gotten a COVID vaccine booster

Rupali Limaye, a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNBC News “Because many of those getting third doses are the same people who were most eager to get shots earlier this year, boosters will give those people even stronger protection while the unvaccinated remain largely unprotected and at a substantially higher risk of hospitalization or death if they get Covid”.

We want to spread protection throughout a community. We will have a portion of the population that will be well protected, and a proportion of the population that has had zero shots.

Rupali Limaye, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (source: CNBC News)

Anthony Fauci, White House’s chief medical advisor, told Bloomberg that a study of mixing and matching Covid vaccines has already been conducted, and the results are being evaluated.