Although the CDC has published a number of specific studies suggesting that the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines against infection is declining, especially in the elderly, Israeli data are more complete and more alarming, they reported. this Monday in POLITICO three sources who have reviewed the data.
The administration’s focus on Israel’s data underscores the extent to which the U.S. relies on the experiences of other countries to predict the next phase of the pandemic here. This is due, in part, to the highly contagious variant of Delta that swept across other parts of the world, and in part due to better data tracking in countries like Israel that have national health care systems. The USA continues to struggle to collect and analyze reliable Covid-19 data because the federal government has long neglected the country’s public health infrastructure.
Senior government officials working on the federal government’s response to the pandemic have been debating for weeks whether to recommend reinforcements to Americans. The White House and top health officials said in mid-August that they planned to launch the shootings for most adults starting Sept. 20. the movement has caused tensions among Biden’s top aides, the CDC and the FDA, amid questions about whether national data supported the goal. Two senior FDA vaccine scientists leaving the agency were co-authors of an analysis published Monday in the Lancet that found no evidence to give booster shots to the general population.
The FDA is examining Israeli data as it reviews vaccine manufacturers ’requests to offer booster shots, three other senior government officials said. One official stressed that, regardless of what national or international vaccine data says, the final decision on whether to recommend booster is up to the FDA. The agency’s vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet Friday to discuss Pfizer’s application for approval of its booster shot.
Asked about the extent to which Israeli data showed a decline in the vaccine’s effectiveness, Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said he was “impressed enough”.
“I would be very surprised if the U.S. data was ultimately not very similar to the Israeli data,” Fauci told POLITICO.
The CDC has published a series of studies on vaccine effectiveness in the United States, focusing on shooting performance after Delta came to dominate this summer. The results suggest that available vaccines still offer strong protection against serious diseases for most age groups and that advanced infections are still extremely rare. But studies also show that shots are less effective at preventing Delta infection than at older strains.
A CDC study published last week found that the ability of vaccines to prevent infections, including mild disease, decreased from 91% to 78% after Delta took over this summer. The study included data on 600,000 Covid-19 infections from April to mid-July and compared the relative risks of infection, hospitalization, and death based on age and vaccination status.
“If you look at it from the point of view of trying to stay ahead of what could be an increase in suffering and death before it really happens … and then you see this data from Israel and the suggestion of our own data, we thought that at The least they need to plan and be prepared to give vaccination doses of a third boost to people in a way that is fast, ”Fauci said.