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National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins said on Tuesday that Israel’s data on the decrease in vaccine effectiveness over time showed the need for booster vaccines eight months after the initial vaccination.
Collins’ comments broadly confirmed what was first reported by The New York Times late Monday night that the Biden administration is set to recommend booster shots after eight months.
“As you may have seen from the overnight information, the idea is to encourage boosters eight months after the initial vaccinations,” Collins said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”
Looking at the data from Israel, “Unsurprisingly, vaccine protection gradually wanes over time,” Collins said.
“And so in Israeli data, the people who were immunized in January are the ones who now have the most revolutionary cases,” he added. “Most of the time, of course, these are symptoms but not severe, but you start to see a little trend towards some of those that require hospitalization.”
Collins said officials, who met “almost daily,” were also reviewing US data.
“This is the same thing that we are starting to see in the US data, although at the moment it still seems that our vaccine protection is working very well,” he said. “But we don’t want to wait until it’s like, ‘Oh too late.'”
A recall recommendation is certainly controversial, given that many public health experts say vulnerable people around the world should get their first injections before wealthy countries like the United States start giving third injections to the population. general.
“THIRD doses for the immunocompromised and [over] 65 is good; FIRST doses for the rest of the world, “tweeted Vin Gupta, assistant professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
The World Health Organization has called on wealthy countries not to give boosters until more people around the world, including healthcare workers in many countries, can receive their first injections.
But the Biden administration has argued it can do both and has a sufficient supply of vaccine to allow for boosts in the United States while continuing its intention to donate more than 500 million doses. to other countries. Advocates praised the donations, but argued that more needed to be done, including strengthening vaccine manufacturing capacity in other countries.
“Basically it looks like boosters are a good idea,” Collins said. “But if you start boosting with the people who received their vaccines earlier, you are going to end up vaccinating especially the nursing homes, health care providers, the elderly, because they are the ones who received the vaccines. doses first, so it’s kind of all fit together. “
He said an announcement would come “very soon”.
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