Is it time for another COVID booster shot? SoCal doctor weighs in

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles Unified School District is set to lift their outdoor mask mandate Tuesday, and some students who practiced extracurricular sports on Monday we're allowed to ditch their masks a day early.

With other states lifting mask mandates for students, health officials in California are seeing increased pressure from parents.

"It's going to be odder and odder when we see packed sports stadiums with nobody wearing a mask and basketball games, and yet, kids still masked in schools. I think if we're going to lift mask mandates in basketball arenas, we can probably lift mask mandates in schools," said Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University's School of Public Health.

Some higher risk patients just passed the six-month mark since they received their booster shot and are wondering, is it time for a fourth shot?

"The fourth shot is recommended for those immunocompromised patients, so patients who have had transplants or are on medications that suppress their immune system," said Dr. Thomas Yadegar, the director of the ICU at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center.

"It's critical for them to get their fourth shot. It's essentially their booster, but I think for everyone else, we do have some time to wait and see what the data shows," Yadegar said. "I don't think there is a reason to rush out and get a fourth shot at this point even if you're in the higher risk category."

Yadegar says he's seeing fewer patients test positive on a daily basis and beds are opening up. At this point, Yadegar says he's not too concerned with the omicron subvariant BA.2.

"We're not seeing an increase in the number of patients who are testing positive nor are we seeing an increase in the number of patients who require hospitalization, so I think it's something that we need to watch carefully, but at this point I don't think we need to panic or make any changes," said Yadegar.

And a study conducted in Malaysia found that ivermectin is not effective for treating COVID-19. The study included 500 COVID-19 patients with at least one underlying health condition, who were provided a five-day course of oral ivermectin, in addition to usual symptom-based treatment.

The study found no significant difference in outcomes in those who received ivermectin compared to those who did not.