Covid Vaccine Booster Confusion in the Public, Politics, and Medicine
As Taken from Modern Healthcare: Scientists say Biden jumped the gun with booster plan | Modern Healthcare
Scientists believe President Biden is jumping the gun by claiming people should be seeking a third shot, a booster shot of Covid vaccine. I am not sure which scientists the Modern Healthcare article is referring to; but, there are a bunch of doctors appearing to have issues with Biden’s booster plan. The issues require answering.
Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an adviser to the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration:
Director of the Vaccine Education Center, Dr. Paul Offit’s comment:
“We sent a terrible message. We just sent a message out there that people who consider themselves fully vaccinated were not fully vaccinated. That is sending the wrong message. They are already protected against serious illness.”
Scientists say Biden jumped the gun with booster plan | Modern Healthcare
Associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, Dr. Joshua Barocas, comment:
“Arguably, I think that the federal government is simply trying to stay ahead of the curve. I have not seen robust data suggesting it is better to boost Americans who have two vaccinations already. It is better to invest resources and time getting unvaccinated people across the world vaccinated.”
Scientists say Biden jumped the gun with booster plan | Modern Healthcare
Wednesday found President Joe Biden announcing boosters would be available in late September to adults (age 18 and up). Shots would be available after eight months or more have passed since receiving second doses of a Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, etc. (?) COVID vaccines.
The plan has its issues as the CDC advisory panel, and the FDA have not yet authorized boosters for adults. One would have expected Biden’s kneejerk reaction to have occurred under the last president. There is still time to delay until the science catches up with the politics.
President Biden really does not have much of a foundation to support his commentary if the medical experts in place are taking issue with what now appears to be premature. Some other commentary .
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s comment
“We are concerned this pattern of decline we are seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death.”
Scientists say Biden jumped the gun with booster plan | Modern Healthcare
Citing experts and falling back to using the “scientists and public health experts” mantra is not demonstrating a clear and concise message of benefits to the public which would promote getting booster shots. The positive messaging is just as confusing to the public as what has been promoted by Republican politicians and anti-vaxers about COVID vaccines.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,
Epidemiologist and associate professor, Jennifer Nuzzo’s comment:
“They (vaccines) are not a force field. They don’t repel the virus from your body. They do train your immune system to respond when you become infected . . . with the goal of keeping you out of the hospital.”
Scientists say Biden jumped the gun with booster plan | Modern Healthcare
What goes straight to the heart of the issues is the vaccines mostly do not prevent you from getting Covid, You may not get it after vaccination or if you do get Covid, you will have a milder infection which should not require hospitalization.
Some of the positives about this article is it dispels some of the misconceptions spouted by those who oppose vaccinations and also the confusion surrounding the vaccinations. What will remain with the booster is still the question of whether the it will make one less likely to get Covid less likely to be transmissible. Those are two questions, which if answered, would have a huge impact.
The points being made to date are the vaccine does protect but it is not as effective as the past vaccines for different diseases. With the vaccine you can still get sick and you can still carry the virus. However, hospitalization is less likely as is dying from Covid if vaccinated.
Covid can mutate which would require a new vaccine.
Biden’s chief medical adviser on whether the booster vaccine will lessen Covid transmission.
Dr. Anthony Fauci’s comment:
“I certainly hope that is the case . . . but the bottom line, with full transparency, we don’t know that right now.”
Scientists say Biden jumped the gun with booster plan | Modern Healthcare
In light of CDC studies, it is clear the Covid vaccine is working in a limited way today and protecting people from severe outcomes and infections. There is confusing rhetoric about the vaccine. The Covid vaccine confusion is worsening as political interests continue undermining this administration. And Medicine is not really being loud and clear on the benefits of the Covid vaccine which also feeds the mistrust by those resisting vaccination and allows politicians to mislead the public.
Biden needs to explain more and perhaps pause and allow the medicine to catch up with him.
Science Brief: COVID-19 Vaccines and Vaccination (cdc.gov)
Some data.
Real-world vaccine effectiveness in the US. As taken from Table 1: >90% Pfizer/Moderna
Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Against Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the US. As taken from Table 1b; >80% Pfizer/Moderna
Some duplication of paragraphs.
Fraud Guy:
I am working off a 12 inch laptop screen solid state computer. Great for airports and lugging around. Not so great for long posts. Thank you.
No confusion on my part.
Will get a shot every 6 months. Whatever brand I can get. Don’t care about cost.
DB:
Stick with the original manufacturer. Covid pandemic shots will be free (just paid for by taxes).
Seriously? There is doubt that immunocompromised individuals do not produce antibodies in as large a number as others? That giving those individuals a booster raises their antibody levels?
It was my understanding that the booster recommendation was for immunocompromised individuals. The early statistics on breakthrough cases would tend to confirm that two shots were not adequate for the elderly or otherwise immunocompromised.
If the vaccine loses some effectiveness, either with time or Delta variant, then boosters are appropriate. Right now there is evidence that two shots are not sufficient for immunocompromised individuals. The whole point of a vaccine is to prevent. Waiting until the hospitalizations and deaths rise for a known group of people before recommending that they get additional protection via booster seems really really late.
Israel had already given over a million third shots a week ago; it has to be more than that now…here’s an initial report from last week:
so i check today and Israel’s new cases are still up 15% week over week, with 5,316 cases per million population in the past week, one of the highest new infection rates in the world..
rjs:
“highest new infection rates” means what? For young or old. Gotta explain that one.
Run, Israel’s 5,316 new cases per million population the past week was one of the highest rates of new infections globally; i don’t know how else to say that…it has nothing to do with age; it’s a population ratio…Cuba, with 5,812 new cases per million, was higher…the US new case rate over the past week was 3,101 new cases per million of population…India’s new cases over the past week were only 151 per million Indians…China’s rate was 0.2; in other words, they only had one new case per 5 million people..
check out new infection rates for any other country; my source is the 5th column in this table “Cases in the last 7 days per million population”
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/weekly-trends/#weekly_table
rj:
The highest rate for whom?
People over sixty as your commentary states in the beginning or the general population? You go from this:
“a study have showed that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, given to Israelis over 60”
to this:
“Some 1.1 million eligible Israelis – people over 50, healthcare workers, and others – have received their third dose.”
to this:
“so i check today and Israel’s new cases are still up 15% week over week, with 5,316 cases per million population in the past week, one of the highest new infection rates in the world.”
The last factoid is dangling and perhaps independent of the first two facts.
run re “The last factoid is dangling and perhaps independent of the first two facts.”
exactly; i go from quoting a week old article on Israel’s booster rollout to checking the day’s data at a different site, to see if Israel is making any progress controlling their outbreak with all those third vaccines…and i opine that clearly, they are not…
ok, run, i see what your objection is…the booster shots are being given to those over 50, and i’m quoting data that includes the whole population…
so, granted that’s a non sequitur…for all i know, the surge in new cases could all be among unvaccinated school kids…
rj:
I use the same site also.
Here’s a good think piece on the considerations around boosters and the current data. The money quote: “In short, diminished vaccine effectiveness does not make the case for boosters. A reduction in severe outcomes makes the case for boosters, but we have no such data to date.”
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/vinay-prasad/94188?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2021-08-25&eun=g1700464d0r&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Headlines%20Top%20Cat%20HeC%20%202021-08-25&utm_term=NL_Daily_DHE_dual-gmail-definition
If diminished severe cases is what makes the case, you still need a booster program to get that data I think.
@Eric,
What you need is a booster *trial*, not telling everyone they need a booster.
Also, everything has a price:”. . . two people with knowledge of the FDA’s deliberation told The Washington Post that the agency was investigating myocarditis signal with the Moderna vaccination. Canadian data suggest the risk may be 2.5 times that of Pfizer’s vaccine.”
Thanks. Right, you need some group to have boosters, not finding an implicit need based on data from unboosted populations.
NYT: J&J finds that a second dose of its vaccine provides a strong boost
A booster shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine dramatically raises the levels of antibodies against the coronavirus, the company reported on Wednesday.
Johnson & Johnson will submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration, which is evaluating similar studies from Pfizer and Moderna. If authorized by the agency, the Biden administration wants to provide booster shots eight months after vaccination.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was absent from the government’s initial booster plan, announced last week. But with the new data, the company hopes to be part of the initial distribution of additional shots, which could happen as early as September. …
In its new study, Johnson & Johnson tracked 17 volunteers from last year’s clinical trial. Six months after vaccination, their level of antibodies had changed little.
That’s different than the pattern seen with the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. Those shots initially produce higher levels of antibodies, but their levels then drop over several months.
When volunteers in the Johnson & Johnson trial were given a booster shot at six months, their antibodies against the coronavirus jumped nine times higher than after the first dose. …