Current Events > FDA panel rejects plan to administer Pfizer Covid booster doses to general pubic

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/17/fda-panel-begins-voting-on-pfizers-covid-booster-doses-rejecting-shots-for-general-public.html

An influential Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Friday declined to recommend booster shots of Pfizer and BioNTechs Covid-19 vaccine to the general public. The nonbinding decision by the FDAs Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee comes as the Biden administration has said it wants to begin offering booster shots to the general public as early as next week, pending authorization from U.S. health regulators. While the agency hasnt always followed the advice of its committee, it often does. A final FDA decision could come in a matter of hours. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has scheduled a two-day meeting next week to discuss plans to distribute the third shots in the U.S. The committee vote was expected to be a controversial one as some scientists, including two senior FDA officials who were involved in the meeting Friday, have said they arent entirely convinced every American who has received the Pfizer vaccine needs extra doses right now. In a paper published days before the advisory committee meeting, a leading group of scientists said available data showed vaccine protection against severe disease persists, even as the effectiveness against mild disease wanes over time. The authors, including two high-ranking FDA officials and multiple scientists from the World Health Organization, argued Monday in the medical journal The Lancet that widely distributing booster shots to the general public is not appropriate at this time.

In outlining plans last month to start distributing boosters as early as next week, administration officials cited three CDC studies that showed the vaccines protection against Covid diminished over several months. Senior health officials said at the time they worried protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death could diminish in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or were vaccinated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout. Before the vote, some committee members said they were concerned that there wasnt enough data to make a recommendation, while others argued third shots should be limited to certain groups, such as people over age 60 who are known to be at higher risk of severe disease. Some members raised concerns about the risk of myocarditis in younger people, saying more research is needed. Dr. Hayley Gans, a voting member, said she was struck that the FDA was asking the committee to look at the totality of the evidence presented Friday because some data, including on safety, was still insufficient. Another member, Dr. Paul Offit, said he would support boosters for people over 60, but had trouble backing third shots for younger groups due to a higher risk of myocarditis. Prior to the vote Friday, the committee listened to several presentations on data to support the wide distribution of booster shots, including from health authorities from Israel, where officials began inoculating the nations population ahead of many other countries and began offering third shots to their citizens in late July.



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Guess we not gonna make it fellow vaxxers

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So if no third shot...is this an annual thing then?

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Oneform posted...

So if no third shot...is this an annual thing then?

It'll just depend on the evolving data.

People on this board and 261 seemed to rage at the people that suggested a booster may not be necessary because the data wasn't final. Where are those people now?

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Ooooooranges posted...

It'll just depend on the evolving data.

People on this board and 261 seemed to rage at the people that suggested a booster may not be necessary because the data wasn't final. Where are those people now?

Peeps see dogwhistles too often, and start seeing them where they aren't. Gotta keep a cool head.

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So it seems like if you're 65 y/o, you should get a 3rd shot.

The rest of us will have to live with 2 shots for now.

Talk about large scale Beta Testing a vaccine.

This has got to be the largest data sample size in history for any new vaccine.

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Tldr

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I feel like they're only doing this for the same reason they said masks weren't needed early on- to avoid scarcity. That backfired before and I hope that's not what's happening here.

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Relient_K posted...

I feel like they're only doing this for the same reason they said masks weren't needed early on- to avoid scarcity. That backfired before and I hope that's not what's happening here.

I think it's more "we don't need a 3rd shot because younger people who have the two doses are not dying with it, they are just more easily catching it/being symptomatic". I imagine the FDA doesn't want us all having covid shots every few months for the rest of our lives to avoid getting sick in general.

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