Government no longer following the science on COVID?
CNBC reports that the FDA and the CDC, both effectively arms of the US government, “authorized Pfizer and Moderna fourth doses for everyone age 50 and older, as well as a fifth dose for certain younger people”. Source.
CNBC adds that “The FDA and CDC made the decision without consulting their committees of independent vaccine experts.” The article includes some revealing comments from several experts, such as, “So is this the way it works? We talk endlessly about how we follow the science — it doesn’t seem to work out that way.”, and notes that “Health experts disagree on whether a fourth vaccine dose is needed right now”. The article also states: “The FDA advisory committee voted overwhelmingly against a third dose for everyone age 16 and older in September last year because the experts felt there wasn’t enough data to support such a decision. Two months later, the FDA authorized Moderna and Pfizer boosters for all adults without holding an advisory committee meeting, and then lowered eligibility in December and January to include everyone 12 and older.” Earlier this year the World Health Organization stated: “a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable… COVID-19 vaccines need to… be more effective in protection against infection thus lowering community transmission and the need for stringent and broad-reaching public health and social measures [and] elicit immune responses that are broad, strong, and long-lasting in order to reduce the need for successive booster doses.” Source.
Okay then.