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 "Those who are transplant patients, cancer chemotherapy, auto-immune
diseases, that are on immunosuppressant regimens, those are the kind
of individuals that if there's going to be a third booster, which
might likely happen, would be among first the vulnerable," Fauci
said during a CNN interview.
He added health officials are also considering whether to revise
mask guidance for vaccinated Americans saying it was "under active
consideration."
Citing studies that show there might be waning immunity in
vaccinated people, Fauci said U.S. health officials are reviewing
data to determine when boosters might be needed.
“It’s a dynamic situation. It’s a work in progress, it evolves like
in so many other areas of the pandemic,” said Fauci, the director of
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “You’ve
got to look at the data.”
Last week, Israel's health ministry reported a decrease in the
effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine in preventing infections and
symptomatic illness. But it added that the two-dose COVID-19 vaccine
developed by Pfizer with partner BioNTech still remained highly
effective in preventing severe illness.
The decline in efficacy coincided with the spread of the Delta
variant, now the dominant strain in Israel.
Israel is administering third doses of the vaccine to
immunocompromised people, including those who have had heart, lung,
kidney or liver transplants and cancer patients receiving
chemotherapy.
The Delta variant, which was first found in India, is driving up
infections in the United States.
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 The sharpest increases in
COVID-19 cases are in places with lower
vaccination rates. Florida, Texas and Missouri
account for 40% of all new cases nationwide,
with around one in five of all new U.S. cases
occurring in Florida, White House adviser
Jeffrey Zients said last week.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported an uptick in
the number of vaccine doses administered in the
past 24 hours -- 778,996, the highest number
given in a 24-hour period since the United
States reported giving 1.16 million doses on
July 3. However, that number is
far below the peak of 4.63 million doses reported on April 10 and,
despite the rise, the pace of vaccinations is still generally
declining, CDC data shows.
Since vaccines became widely available in the spring, President Joe
Biden's White House has been conducting an aggressive campaign to
get shots in arms that has been met with skepticism in some states
and communities.
White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain on Sunday hailed the CDC
numbers as a sign vaccinations were picking back up.
Pfizer and BioNTech said on Friday that the United States had
purchased 200 million more doses of their vaccine to help with
pediatric vaccination as well as possible booster shots.
(Reporting by Linda So; Additional reporting by Maria Caspani in New
York; Editing by Tim Ahmann, Grant McCool and Sonya Hepinstall)
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