The nation’s top health officials on Friday defended their early rollout of a plan to make COVID-19 booster shots available to Americans this month, even with data that indicate the third shot may not be necessary for all populations yet.
As a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee met Friday to consider Pfizer’s application for booster approval, officials stood by their August announcement about boosters, saying that having a “strong plan in place” would prevent a lag if and when the shots were approved.
The White House and its COVID response team have faced criticism in recent weeks for getting ahead of health agencies’ review of booster shots, especially with only a few studies on their efficacy publicly available.
“If you want to roll out booster shots to the population, you can’t flip a switch and make that happen overnight,” said Surgeon General Vivek Murthy at a briefing on Friday. “We've now been using the last few weeks to do that all-important coordination, so the public can be confident that if and when boosters are required, they'd be there for them.”
Dr. Murthy reiterated that their plan was always contingent on FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approval, and the CDC’s advisory panel was set to meet next week to give their recommendation after the FDA met Friday.
“When the vaccines were initially authorized for emergency use, there was not a strong plan in place, and we saw that there was a lag,” said White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients. “We want to make sure we're ready, whatever decision the agencies make.”
Zients also emphasized that the U.S. was ready to roll out boosters if they’re approved.
“We have plenty of supply,” he said, adding: “We've been working, for the last few weeks, intensely with our partners — our governors, state and local health officials, the federal pharmacy programs, the community health centers — to ensure that we are ready for next week.”
So far, the CDC has recommended boosters only for immunocompromised Americans. Nearly two million people have gotten a third dose so far, according to the agency’s website, though it’s unclear if all of them were eligible.
The criticism of the early rollout of the plan stems from two channels. First, data shows that the three COVID-19 vaccines are still protective against severe illness and death for most people, and the science on waning protection against infections is limited. A small study by Pfizer found that its vaccine’s efficacy drops by about 6% every two months.
Second, there is an ethical argument against booster shots, since much of the world — including millions of people in the U.S. — isn’t even protected by a single dose yet.
On Monday, the medical journal The Lancet published an opinion piece by an international group of scientists who argue that the average person doesn’t need a COVID-19 booster yet.
The experts reviewed studies of the vaccines’ performance and concluded the shots are working well despite the extra-contagious delta variant, especially against severe disease.
The CDC director on Friday also responded to increasing reports that Americans are getting booster shots even if they’re not eligible.
“Every patient I saw in clinic yesterday who was over the age of 60 had already received a booster,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a physician and professor at George Washington University’s medical school, wrote on Twitter.
“When you tell the public that vaccine efficacy is waning, and they see breakthrough cases rising, what do you expect people to do?”
“We are closely working with jurisdictions to make sure that they understand what is in their provider agreements,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told Spectrum News.
“Some of these we want to encourage, of course, for those who are severely immunocompromised,” she said. “Some of these are actually expected.”
Experts say that older Americans may eventually be eligible for the booster shot after health agencies review the data, but the CDC has not yet opened it up to that population.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.