FDA Considers Giving COVID-19 Booster Shots; Several Scientists Oppose Additional Jabs

The US Food and Drug Administration considers giving COVID-19 booster injections to patients a few months after they finish their vaccinations.

This week, CNBC said US health officials prompted to reconsider their view on vaccine booster injections after Israel noted the long-term efficacy of Covid-19 vaccinations.

On August 16, Israel published fresh data revealing that the efficacy of Pfizer's Covid vaccination against serious illness has decreased among persons 65 and older who were completely vaccinated in January or February.

FDA Advisers Expected to Have a Bumpy Discussion Over COVID-19 Booster Shots This Week

When the advisory group meets on Friday, experts are expected to be provided with contradictory evidence, suggesting that boosters are needed.

The advisers will certainly dispute the very nature of Covid-19 boosters, including whether they would function and what they are meant to do in the first place.

According to CNN, the talks will be considerably rougher than they were in December, according to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University.

Schaffner has been carefully watching the FDA's decisions since he is a member of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory group that will examine booster injections if the FDA approves Pfizer's application.

Not Enough Evidence For COVID-19 Booster Shots, Several Experts Claim

COVID-19 booster injections should not be given to most fully vaccinated persons, according to eighteen leading experts from around the world.

In a review published in The Lancet on Monday, the experts claimed that increasing immunity to minimize COVID-19 infections was "appealing." The study is titled "Considerations in Boosting COVID-19 Vaccine Immune Response."

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Researchers cited 93 references that existing data did not support the "widespread use of booster immunization" in the general population.

Business Insider said Philip Krause and Marion Gruber were among the group. Krause and Gruber are two Food and Drug Administration employees who quit in September over the Biden administration's booster injection proposal.

From September 20, the United States is planned to begin administering booster shots to increase immunity against the Delta strain, which includes changes that can enable it to escape the immune response.

Americans who are immune-compromised can already obtain an additional injection. Other specialists' worries about the absence of booster data have been noted by Insider's Hilary Brueck.

Several Countries Already Started Giving Boosters

While Germany and France have already begun administering third vaccinations to the elderly and immunocompromised, DW said Israel has already started administering booster shots to children as young as 12 years old.

COVID boosters will be accessible to the elderly and people with weakened immune systems as early as six months after the initial dosage, according to the Greek and Italian health ministries.

However, the authors of the Lancet paper feel that novel variations produced by a lack of immunization in impoverished nations pose a greater hazard.

They argue that giving vaccines to impoverished nations, particularly in Africa and Latin America, where just 10% of their populations are vaccinated, makes more sense.