CDC Director Walensky overrules agency panel recommendation on Pfizer booster for at-risk workers
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 3 years ago • 3 commentsBy: Sophie Mann (Just The News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, late Thursday overruled an agency panel recommendation that refused to endorse booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine for frontline workers.
Walensky's move is an unusual one, though it aligns her agency with the recommendation of the Food and Drug Administration over that of her own advisers. On Thursday, the CDC'S Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended that booster shots be given to older Americans, and younger individuals who are at higher risk for severe cases of COVID-19.
The recommendation, however, did not include health care workers, teachers, and others whose jobs place them at heightened risk. Walensky's trumping of that recommendation aligns her agency's policy with the Biden administration's broader goal of offering booster shots to as many Americans as is feasible.
Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford and a liaison to the CDC panel from the American Academy of Pediatrics told the New York Times, "I am surprised that Dr. Walensky overturned one of the four ACIP votes today, and I believe others will be as well."
The panel's initial guidance came after weeks of internal dispute and debate about when and how to rollout a booster shot. The Biden administration has been touting boosters since mid-August and announced plans weeks ago to roll out the shots this week. Regulators and agency scientists, however, pumped the brakes on the White House plan by pointing out how little research had been done on boosters.
At present, only Americans who have received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will qualify for booster shots. The panel did not evaluate the eligibility of those who have received either the Moderna double shot or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
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Can there be any further doubt that Walensky is nothing more than a political tool for Biden and the Teacher's Union?
Biden, yes she is. But I thought most teachers unions while pro-vaccination were against mandatory covid shots and were pushing mask mandates instead?
Personally I think the booster is a great idea (yes, I'm pro-vaccine) and I think that teachers should have a mandatory vaccine unless they have valid medical reasons not to. I strongly feel we need to keep the children in school and until the vaccines are approved for ALL children I am for mandatory vaccinations for teachers & staff (absent of course a valid medical exemption) in all schools as well as mandatory masks for everybody in the schools.
They've come around on getting all their members vaccinated - after getting them first-in-line for the vaccine as soon as it became available.
Personally I think the booster is a great idea
I agree
I strongly feel we need to keep the children in school and until the vaccines are approved for ALL children I am for mandatory vaccinations for teachers & staff (absent of course a valid medical exemption) in all schools as well as mandatory masks for everybody in the schools.
I want them in school with vaccinated teachers. When it comes to masking them up for an entire day, I need to see some real proof that they young children are vulnerable.