[ad_1]
Top scientists around the world – including experts from the FDA and the World Health Organization – argued against the need for large-scale coronavirus vaccines on Monday.
In a review published in the leading medical journal The Lancet, scientists argued that booster shots are not needed in the general population because vaccines are still very effective in preventing serious illness and death. They also mentioned the urgent need to administer doses to unvaccinated people around the world to save lives and prevent the emergence of more dangerous variants.
The review comes as the United States moves closer to the Biden administration’s proposed start date for a booster deployment, recommended eight months after an individual’s second injection of Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. The report also comes a week after the White House announced a massive push to make vaccination mandatory for nearly two-thirds of the US workforce, as pockets of unvaccinated people continue to generate high numbers of hospitalizations and deaths across the country.
The Lancet journal’s 18 co-authors include Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s office of vaccines, and Philip Krause, its deputy at the agency, both of whom announced they would resign in the fall in part because of their opposition to the recall of the Biden administration. plan. The review was also co-authored by several experts from the World Health Organization, which called for a global moratorium on booster injections to maximize immunizations around the world, especially in developing countries. , where vaccination rates remain very low.
The Lancet article reviews the current evidence for the protection offered by existing vaccines. While the vaccines all offer less protection against Delta variant infection compared to the previously dominant Alpha, they still offer very good protection against serious disease. And while the ability to prevent infection or even symptomatic illnesses may wane over time, protection against serious illness so far appears to be strong.
Three CDC reports released last week confirmed these results in most age groups, decreasing more significantly in people 75 years of age or older. One of the studies looked at nearly 570,000 cases of COVID-19 in the United States from April to July, showing that unvaccinated people were almost 5 times more likely to be infected and more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized or to die than people who received a vaccine. .
“Current evidence therefore does not appear to show a need for strengthening in the general population, in which efficacy against serious diseases remains high,” wrote the authors of the Lancet article.
Data from Israel, which has already started rolling out booster shots, showed increased protection against serious infections and illnesses after a third injection of the Pfizer vaccine, originally given in two doses. But the Lancet authors noted that data was only collected for a week after the booster dose was given, and it is not known how long this protection will last.
The Lancet authors argued that boosters might eventually be needed if immunity wanes over time, but more research is needed to determine when this would be needed. For now, they argued, it is more urgent to administer existing doses to unvaccinated people. They also suggested that booster doses designed specifically against the major circulating variants of the coronavirus could be more potent and longer lasting.
“While a gain may ultimately be obtained through stimulation, this will not outweigh the benefits of providing initial protection to the unvaccinated,” the authors wrote. “If the vaccines are deployed where they would do the most good, they could hasten the end of the pandemic by inhibiting the future evolution of the variants.” “
Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergency program, condemned the recall deployments in harsh terms last month. “We plan to distribute additional life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we are leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket,” Ryan said. “It’s reality.”
[ad_2]
Source link