The FDA's meeting on Covid 19 boosters may not provide an answer to all

The US Food and Drug Administration is meeting Friday about Covid-19 vaccine boosters, but the long-awaited discussion may not yield an answer as to whether all vaccinated Americans will get a third dose, experts said."What I think we're going to hear from the FDA advisory committee is a go-ahead to boost people over the age probably of 60 because that's where the data is most solid," CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said. "The question is what does this mean for people who are younger, and do we need to start boosting them now?"Three reports published Wednesday supporting the argument that people may need a booster dose of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine over time are part of a batch of data that will be discussed by the FDA's vaccine advisers as it considers a request by Pfizer to approve a third, booster dose for most people six months after they get their first two doses of vaccine. But there isn't unanimity right now. On Monday, a group of international vaccine experts, including some from the FDA and the World Health Organization, wrote in the Lancet that current evidence does not appear to support a need for booster shots in the general public right now."Typically, we have a pretty good idea of how (these meetings) are going to go ahead of time," CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta said Thursday. "I gotta say, I'm not so sure on this one."The outstanding questions, Gupta noted, included: Is immunity waning? How severe are breakthrough infections? How long does the booster effect last? And how much do boosters reduce transmission? The questions are impacted by where the US stands in the pandemic. The proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated -- now at around 54.2% of the entire population -- is still far below where experts have said it needs to be to slow or stop the spread, and cases have been on the rise. The advisers will be looking at the data to balance safety and efficacy with the rise in infection and severe illness the US is facing, Reiner said."We want them to do this, we welcome this. But my guess is we're not going to hear sort of a blanket opening of boosters for the entire population," Reiner said. The pandemic has impacted different populations differently, and people of color are bearing a heavy burden, according to new research. Black people, those over 40 and people with pre-existing conditions were the most likely sufferers of long Covid symptoms, which impacted a third of the Covid-19 patients, according to a study by the Long Beach department of Health and Human Services in California. The most common extended symptom was fatigue, followed by loss of taste and loss of smell, the team reported in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.


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Article Link: https://us.cnn.com/2021/09/17/health/us-coronavirus-friday/index.html


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