{"id":2942,"date":"2021-08-31T04:21:17","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T04:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=2942"},"modified":"2021-08-31T04:21:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T04:21:17","slug":"scientists-push-back-on-call-to-endorse-booster-shots-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=2942","title":{"rendered":"Scientists push back on call to endorse booster shots for all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Authors: By Ariel Hart<\/a>,  Helena Oliviero<\/a>– The Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to the resurging pandemic and breakthrough infections, President Biden and some top health officials are pushing for the U.S. to begin vaccine booster shots by Sept. 20. But the committee of scientists who officially recommend whether to take such steps met Monday and pushed back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientists said they still had fundamental questions to answer, such as whether the increase in COVID-19 infections after vaccination, so-called breakthrough cases<\/a>, was related at all to waning effectiveness of the vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Sept. 20 date was announced \u201cit led everyone\u2014it led physicians, it led the public\u2014to believe that they had access to information about these vaccines and the need for boosters that had not yet been publicly released,\u201d said Dr. Sandra Fryhofer of Atlanta, a nonvoting member of the committee. \u201cAnd to me, that kind of opened the door to a lot of confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on whether scientific data merit approval or warnings on vaccines. From the moment its chairwoman opened Monday\u2019s meeting, members made blunt statements that they would follow scientific data and processes on booster shots, regardless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other scientists were glad to hear it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a process that is being undermined by \u2018science by leak,\u2019\u201d said Dr. Felipe Lobelo of Emory University, an epidemiologist and associate professor told the AJC. \u201cWe don\u2019t really have strong data on when the waning starts; on whether the increased rates of infection and so called breakthrough infections…are occurring because of this waning effect\u2014 or is it because delta is more transmissible? Or is it because people are changing behaviors?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Carlos del Rio, professor of medicine at Emory University, agreed. \u201cThe problem is by focusing on boosters we\u2019re distracting from the biggest problem, which is all the unvaccinated people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without calling them \u201cbooster shots,\u201d the FDA has authorized an extra shot for certain people with compromised immune systems,<\/a> like organ transplant recipients, after they have completed their original coronavirus vaccine regimen. But no decisions have been made for other vulnerable groups, much less the general public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That leaves Georgians who are now eager for a booster shot not knowing what comes next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Avondale Estates, Carolyn Chandler, 80, has marked her calendar for Oct. 16, the day she should get a booster if they\u2019re recommended eight months from initial vaccination, as federal officials have touted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since Chandler started to see reports showing waning immunity from the vaccines, there was no question for her that she would get a booster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just would like to stick around for a while,\u201d Chandler said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authors: By Ariel Hart,  Helena Oliviero– The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Responding to the resurging pandemic and breakthrough infections, President Biden and some top health officials are pushing for the U.S. to begin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[725,761,854,863,375,938,939,549,607],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-booster-shot","category-concerns","category-leaky-vaccines","category-mandates","category-news-of-the-day","category-safety","category-safety-studies","category-standards-of-care","category-vaccine-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}