The FDA and CDC advisory-panel meetings that ensued—bewilderingly dense discussions that were several hours long and live-streamed—were sometimes tumultuous. On September 22, after an FDA advisory-panel meeting marked by frustration, the agency authorized Pfizer boosters, but only for elderly people, adults at high risk for severe disease, and people whose jobs put them at risk. The CDC advisory panel that followed voted to recommend boosters for the same groups except high-risk workers—a decision that Walensky unexpectedly overruled late that night.
The impacts of this public discord have rippled through the U.S. and beyond its borders. Chief among them is widespread confusion. In the aftermath of the Pfizer authorization, doctors and patients alike struggled to interpret Walensky’s order because it was unclear which jobs qualified as high-risk. Bear in mind that this ruling applied only to people who had received the Pfizer vaccine, leaving in the dark those who had gotten Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.
Until today, anyone trying to figure out whether they could or should get a booster shot has had a hard time. Who can blame them? Each of the three vaccines has different regulations determined by three separate government agencies that release their guidance independently of one another, with subtle variations that the public does not always understand. How many Americans actually know that, in order to authorize the booster doses that President Joe Biden called for, the FDA must first bring together an independent advisory panel, which votes on a recommendation that’s later taken into account in a final FDA ruling, and that the policy can’t be implemented until the CDC independently carries out a similar process and releases a final recommendation?
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