Pfizer Covid booster recipients ‘want a normal Thanksgiving’ after

Massachusetts resident Preston Alexander, 66, was elated when he found out last week he was eligible to receive a booster dose of Pfizer and BioNTech‘s Covid-19 vaccine.

Alexander, whose wedding photography business went under during the pandemic, worried about his level of protection against the virus heading into the fall and winter when the delta variant is expected to circulate alongside the seasonal flu. After CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off Friday on boosters for a wide array of Americans, including those age 65 and older, he immediately called his local pharmacy to set up an appointment.

The photographer and videographer regularly worked large parties and weddings with 200 to 300 people, he said.

“I am definitely not going to subject myself to others when they’re not even wearing masks and they’re dancing on the dance floor like it’s 1999,” he said in a phone interview. He got a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Saturday.

Four people interviewed by CNBC – among the first Americans to receive booster shots in the United States – said they got the extra doses over the fear that they could expose themselves or their loved ones to the delta variant and become severely sick.

The strain has led to a surge in U.S. hospitalizations, mainly among the unvaccinated. Still, some vaccinated Americans have suffered so-called breakthrough infections and just over 19,000 of them – less than 1% – have been hospitalized or died with Covid as of Sept. 20, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scientists say vaccine protection against infection generally starts to wane six months after the second shot. Federal health officials hope boosting the U.S. population will continue to ensure long-term and durable protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death. Other countries, including Chile and Israel, have already started offering third doses to many of their citizens.

On Friday, Walensky approved a series of recommendations, including distributing the shots to older Americans and adults with underlying medical conditions beginning six months after their first series of inoculations. She also cleared booster shots for those in high-risk occupational and institutional settings, such as health-care workers and teachers, overruling the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices after it rejected the same proposal.

The new policy will make third doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine available to roughly 60 million people, 20 million of whom were immediately eligible as the highly contagious delta variant continues to tear across the country, President Joe Biden said Friday.

Alexander of Massachusetts said he viewed the extra doses as a “blessing.” He noted the side…