U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
1–10 of 42 posts
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#2This was probably the hold-up for FDA approval. They needed to see if a third dose would be recommended. But if two doses weren't enough to stop the delta variant, how can they be sure that three are?
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#3This was probably the hold-up for FDA approval. They needed to see if a third dose would be recommended. But if two doses weren't enough to stop the delta variant, how can they be sure that three are?
They can't. No clinical trials. It's a hail mary.
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#4This was probably the hold-up for FDA approval. They needed to see if a third dose would be recommended. But if two doses weren't enough to stop the delta variant, how can they be sure that three are?
They can't. No clinical trials. It's a hail mary.
I feel like "hail mary" would imply some sort of negative consequences for failure in this case. But short of the third shot just dropping dead everyone who takes it (unlikely), it will be easy enough with our media ecosystem to suppress adverse events and handwave away any problems with efficacy.
I mean, we're already seeing numerous countries experience higher cases and hospitalizations with 50%+ vax rates than they ever did before the vaccine rollouts but hardly anyone is asking "hey, what's going on here?"
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#5Meanwhile the rest of the world outside the US and EU are still starving for any vaccines at all.
But America pays more so they get doubled-up, even though their real problem is all the unvaccinated.
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#6This was probably the hold-up for FDA approval. They needed to see if a third dose would be recommended. But if two doses weren't enough to stop the delta variant, how can they be sure that three are?
This binary thinking is wrong. Nobody thinks three shots will "stop" the delta variant. They think it'll lower the number of severe cases and deaths.
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#7This was probably the hold-up for FDA approval. They needed to see if a third dose would be recommended. But if two doses weren't enough to stop the delta variant, how can they be sure that three are?
As I understand it(which could be completely wrong, so take with a grain of salt), there is no actual 'stopping' variants. The idea is to keep tricking your body with mock spike proteins, so that your body builds defenses against it. And data shows the more shots you get, the more your body builds resistance. So when the real thing arrives, it doesn't affect the host as much, if at all.
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#8This was probably the hold-up for FDA approval. They needed to see if a third dose would be recommended. But if two doses weren't enough to stop the delta variant, how can they be sure that three are?
This binary thinking is wrong. Nobody thinks three shots will "stop" the delta variant. They think it'll lower the number of severe cases and deaths.
Okay, so if the binary thinking is wrong, why stop at three? Why stop at all? Does the science say we just blast our bodies with as much mRNA as we can get away with?
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
This binary thinking is wrong. Nobody thinks three shots will "stop" the delta variant. They think it'll lower the number of severe cases and deaths.
Okay, so if the binary thinking is wrong, why stop at three? Why stop at all? Does the science say we just blast our bodies with as much mRNA as we can get away with?
Elementary economic thinking answers this question.
Benefits asymptote, so you'll stop at the point where the marginal benefit of an additional shot is less than the marginal financial cost, marginal opportunity cost and marginal cost of side effects all combined.
That's definitely not the case before two and may not be the case before three based on data we've seen. It might be the case before four.
And this doesn't factor in declining immunity over time. It might make sense to keep taking shots every half a year forever, until COVID mutates into something less deadly perhaps.
Re: U.S. plans to begin administering Covid-19 booster shots in September
#10> Global health leaders including Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, have pleaded with developed countries not to administer boosters given that most of the world’s population hasn’t received even a single dose. [1]
> U.S regulators authorized a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer Inc (PFE.N)-BioNTech and Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) on Friday for people with compromised immune systems who are likely to have weaker protection from the two-dose regimens. [2]
> "It will be a patient's attestation, and there will be no requirement for proof or prescription or a recommendation from an individual's healthcare provider," CDC official Dr. Amanda Cohn said [2]
Clearly we are facing a supply shortage and distribution problem with the vaccines - and citizens of wealthier & more developed countries will fare better given the dynamics playing out. Perhaps that's just the status quo, not sure why I'm even surprised at this point.
For the poor and rural populations in less developing countries, we really need to be pursuing early treatment using combinations of existing and widely available medicines, which have been shown to be very effective at preventing hospitalization and death [3][4] - it's what many front line doctors are already doing anyway, just without the same level of press coverage that vaccines are getting.
[1] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/grim-warning-israel-...
[2] https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-fda-authorizes-...
[3] Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(20)30673-2/fulltex...
[4] Multifaceted highly targeted sequential multidrug treatment of early ambulatory high-risk SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19) https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?a...