Regulators are now left to chart a path forward despite limited, and sometimes confusing, data on vaccines' effectiveness over time.
Vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine are prepared for packaging at the company's facility in Puurs, Belgium. | Pfizer via APMembers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's independent vaccine advisory panel voiced frustration Monday with the Biden administration's plan to begin doling out Covid-19 boosters next month, arguing the announcement got ahead of federal regulators and could exacerbate vaccine hesitancy.
"Many, many, many" hospitals across the South have already begun administering third doses to their health care workers amid an explosion of Covid cases linked to the Delta variant, said Helen Keipp Talbot, a committee member and associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University. CDC data shows that 955,000 Americans have received additional vaccine doses, though it's unclear how many of those were technically authorized.
A presentation from the CDC committee's Covid vaccine work group didn't mention the Biden administration's September time frame for boosters. It also avoided describing booster shots as a fait accompli, emphasizing it's “critical” to await more safety data and regulatory permission before doling them out.
“We are not at the point in the vaccination program in the U.S. or globally where ... that seems to be achievable," she said. While the U.S. has a steady supply of doses at the ready, and hundreds of millions more on order, many countries around the world are struggling to complete a first round of vaccinations.
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