QUESTION ASKED: Am I still fully vaccinated?

Am I ‘fully vaccinated’? For the last few months I was sure I was — but recent events are making me doubt myself.

Take Monday, when President Biden rolled up his sleeve and presented his unusually hirsute arm for his third Pfizer shot. This followed some federal health advice last week that people over 65, as well as 18-to-64-year-olds with ‘underlying health conditions’ or ‘jobs that increase their risk of developing severe COVID’, are eligible for a third dose of Pfizer.

‘The booster line is if you’re fully vaccinated — the bottom line is that if you’re fully vaccinated and — you’re highly protected now from severe illness, even if you get COVID-19,’ explained the President with his trademark clarity.

Due to a fortuitous run through a hospital parking lot, I secured two doses of Pfizer in March 2021. Back then, we became ‘fully vaccinated’ a full two weeks after completing the course of the COVID vaccine: after your second dose of Pfizer or Moderna or your ‘one-and-done’ Johnson & Johnson. For me, that was mid-April. But is President Biden now ‘more than fully vaccinated’? Or is the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ about to ‘evolve’ — and are the rest of us Pfizerites set to be downgraded?

It seems worth asking – the goalposts have shifted so many times over the last 18 months as public health officials squabble over what ‘guidelines’ or ‘mandates’ are ‘necessary’ for us all.

The public is catching on to the Biden administration’s incoherent and contradictory Covid response: Axios Poll: Majority of Public Now Distrusts Biden to Provide Accurate Information on Covid, Too.