Offit: FDA vaccine adviser warns healthy young people should NOT get new COVID booster: Says it's 'unfair to make them take a risk' after data suggested shot was not as effective as first batch
by Paul Alexander
Offit is running to the hills; "Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee, said he's not fully sold on benefits of a third shot outweighing the harm" Think Thalidomide please!
Think Thalidomide please!
'A healthy young person is unlikely to benefit from the extra dose,' he said.
Myocarditis can even be fatal, with young people far less likely to suffer a severe COVID infection than older people.
If there's not clear evidence of benefit, then it's not fair, I think, to ask people to take a risk no matter how small,' Offit said.
The doctor recently cautioned that pushing the new shot without the supporting evidence risks 'eroding the public's trust.'
He said the studies regarding the bivalent vaccine so far were 'underwhelming.'
A top vaccine expert and pediatric doctor is cautioning parents of healthy young people to hold off getting the new COVID booster shot, saying it can carry risks and its efficacy hasn't yet been proven.’
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the Food and Drug Administration's Vaccine Advisory Committee, said he's not fully sold on the benefits of a third shot outweighing the harm.’
The newly developed dose, called a bivalent vaccine, is a cocktail of the original coronavirus strain combined with parts of the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. The hope being that people would be able to fight a broader range of more highly contagious virus mutations.
But writing in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Offitt said preliminary data suggested the new bivalent vaccines were actually worse at warding off COVID infections than the first generation of shots.
He highlighted data comparing Moderna's original COVID vaccine and its new bivalent update. Of a test group given both shots, 11 people who'd received bivalent vaccines contracted the virus, while just five people who received the original 'monovalent' shot caught COVID.
Offit warned that the Biden administration that 'overselling' the new bivalent vaccines without more data could 'erode the public's trust' in them.’
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