CDC Director Overrules Advisory Panel, Recommends Boosters For Healthcare Workers

In a rare move, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overruled an advisory panel’s decision to not recommend Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine booster shots for health care workers and others who risk contracting the virus at work. Walensky’s decision puts CDC policy in alignment with that of the FDA. From the New York Times:

She approved the panel’s decision to endorse third shots for people over 65, patients in nursing homes and other institutional settings, and those with underlying medical conditions.

On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized booster shots for certain frontline workers. But the C.D.C.’s advisers disagreed that the doses were needed by so many healthy people.

Read the full article here. Many healthcare experts thought the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) decision against offering boosters to folks like nurses, doctors, teachers, etc, was a mistake. https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1441353434905595904 https://twitter.com/DrLeanaWen/status/1441147209517465603