We learned this week that the Biden administration has called on all Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots. But experts aren’t so sure all Americans need them.
Experts recently told The New York Times that not all Americans need the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots since the current COVID-19 vaccines are stopping hospitalizations and death. Making people sick, experts said, is not enough to justify the boosters.
Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center, told The New York Times that the COVID-19 booster should be given to everyone if the vaccines were failing to prevent hospitalizations.
- “Feeling sick like a dog and laid up in bed, but not in the hospital with severe COVID, is not a good enough reason,” Gounder told The New York Times. “We’ll be better protected by vaccinating the unvaccinated here and around the world.”
Similarly, the World Health Organization said there is no need for COVID-19 booster shots right now because some countries haven't even had their first shots, per Reuters.
- The WHO said most people worldwide should be vaccinated before countries start giving out boosters.
On Wednesday, U.S. health officials called on all Americans to get COVID-19 booster shots after new data showed that the current COVID-19 surge has not protected all fully vaccinated people. The delta variant has only further complicated the vaccine’s efficacy.
- “We are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” officials told The New York Times.
- These COVID-19 booster shots will start being offered on Sept. 20, per The Associated Press.