DUBLIN, Ohio — U.S. regulators have determined transplant recipients and immunocompromised individuals can get an extra dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to better protect them as the delta variant continues to surge.
David Hill is a cancer survivor in Dublin. He was diagnosed with two types of lymphoma in 2018.
He’s now 19 months in remission.
“It was terrifying,” Hill said about his diagnosis. “I worked for Abbott Laboratories for 36 years and missed one day of work."
Hill said he received his COVID-19 vaccine and will do anything to protect himself.
Now he has the option to receive a third dose.
"On Monday I will be calling my doctor," Hill said. "They will be telling me what to do."
Hill is part of a large local clinical that is tracking cancer patients vaccinated for COVID-19 at The James Cancer Hospital.
“Typically you think of a booster as something that happens on an annual basis where immunity occurs on a level and then it starts to go down the booster gets you back up to an adequate immune level," said Dr. David Cohn, chief medical officer at The James Cancer Hospital. "What we're thinking of here is that patients that are immunocompromised from cancer, solid organ transplants or HIV may not have ever achieved full immunity from the two shots. They got the hope is that the third shot if approved, would get them there to keep them maximally protected."
Dr. Uday Nori, a transplant nephrologist at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center said with the spread of the delta variant, his level of concern for immunocompromised patients is high.
"I think the time was never more right for such a decision taken by the FDA,” said Dr. Nori.
For Hill, he's now in remission and thankful for more time with his family.
"All of us are striving to win, to survive, to have more time with our family and our friends,” he said. “To do the things we love and whatever. when you're given the opportunity to do something to benefit your survival, can benefit you from having a complication, over and above on top of cancer, i.e. COVID. I don't understand people that don't want to do that. "
Dr. Nori also pointed out that there's really not a lot of information right now on a third dose for people who do not have compromised immune systems. This FDA authorization is only for people with weakened immune systems.