An F.D.A. panel recommended against approving a Pfizer-BioNTech booster for people 16 and older.

[Zorro]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — A scientific advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday overwhelmingly recommended against approving a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for people 16 and older.

The committee voted 16 to 3 after holding an intense daylong public discussion on whether booster shots are necessary and if so, for whom. The Biden administration has been hoping the F.D.A. would approve a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine in time to begin rolling out boosters for Pfizer recipients next week.

The vote came after a sharp debate in which many of the panel’s independent experts, including infectious disease doctors and statisticians, challenged whether the data justified a broad rollout of extra shots when the vaccines appear to still offer robust protection against severe Covid-19 disease and hospitalization, at least in the United States.

“It’s unclear that everyone needs to be boosted, other than a subset of the population that clearly would be at high risk for serious disease,” said Dr. Michael G. Kurilla, a committee member and official at the National Institutes of Health.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/us/politics/fda-booster-shots-meeting-covid.html

[lagomorph777]

1. This sucks, and couldn't come at a worse time.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Clarified vote total equals 16 YES and 2 NOs

there was an "extra" NO vote in the little applet vote they use.

[durablend]

4. Nah we're just gonna wait for the breakthroughs to go through the roof

Then "Oh shit, maybe we should've done something"

[LisaL]

5. Yep, that seems to be the plan.

NT

[BlueIdaho]

6. The FDA has not exactly been a shining light during this pandemic.

The same can also probably be said about the CDC too. If love to know what reasoning they are using during a time when the pandemic is blowing up virtually everywhere and the vaccine creators are recommending boosters of their drugs.

[AZSkiffyGeek]

8. Probably that boosters don't provide enough of a boost to justify a third dose

When the vast majority of the world hasn't had a single jab.

[LisaL]

10. That's not what Israel's data indicate.

NT

[AZSkiffyGeek]

11. The question isn't if it boosts the efficacy

It's whether the boost is enough to justify it when the vaccinated are still not at particularly high risk of hospitalization/death, and when there are so many unvaccinated spreading worldwide that don't have access to their first shot.
Should we delay giving kids their jabs because adults want a third dose?

[BlueIdaho]

12. It's a really complicated question.

There are so many doses of vaccine in the US being thrown away because they have expired, I seriously doubt third jabs are going to create a threat of scarcity. As far as global vaccinations - most poor countries lack the storage and distribution facilities for the US vaccines. That’s why Astra Zeneca is the vaccine of choice outside of the US.

I suspect this won’t be a simple yes or no answer. If I had to guess, I would guess third jabs will go to the over 60 crowd first for obvious reasons.

Finally, I live in Idaho and we are swimming in vaccines yet our vaccination numbers have remained flat for months because of the huge number of redneck Trumpers who think staying unvaccinated proves their loyalty to TFG.

So like I said, it’s complicated.

[musclecar6]

14. Loyalty to TFG !?!?!?!?

That one way national disgrace wouldn’t piss on those rednecks if they were on fire. Complete morons.

[BlueIdaho]

15. Just try telling them that.

They think the sun shines out his arsehole. Go figure…

[padfun]

16. Why would you have to delay a kids shot in order to give an adult another one?

Don't they have more than one dose? If not, maybe they should ask for more supply.

[Clagfarble]

13. What does the Israel data indicate?

?

[marble falls]

17. Good question. I'm not sure either, especially when it seemed for a while they had control ...

... makes me think that herd immunity has to be brought up to a higher percentage that it was thought and as quickly as possible.

[LisaL]

9. My feelings exactly.

US is leading the world in the number of infections.

[Rollo]

7. Here's a free link to a similar story...

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/17/fda-panel-begins-voting-on-pfizers-covid-booster-doses-rejecting-shots-for-general-public.html