Long-term care advocates, worried about vulnerable residents, say plans for COVID-19 booster shots must start now

Long-term care advocates, worried that residents will be the first to see the COVID vaccine wear off, are sounding the alarm about the need for plans for booster shots.

Five months after the first COVID-19 vaccine doses made their way to the nation's nursing homes, long-term care advocates are sounding the alarm about the need for a plan for a potential booster shot, out of concern that elderly long-term care residents will be the first to see the effects of the coronavirus vaccine wear off. Although vaccine companies have already begun clinical trials for booster shots, there is still not enough research to know if or when people will need them, experts tell ABC News. "We don't have quite all the pieces yet," said Dr. Thaddeus Stappenbeck, chair of the Department of Inflammation and Immunity at Cleveland Clinic. "We don't know how long immunity lasts in any individual, because we just haven't had enough experience with this virus." The challenge, Stappenbeck said, is that the part of the immune system that controls the production of antibodies declines as people get older. As a result, said Stappenbeck, vaccine companies and health officials need to get ahead of the curve before immunity wanes among the older people in nursing facilities who were among the first during the pandemic to be vaccinated.