The Covid Booster Debate

Covid vaccines can make for strange bedfellows, and raise your hand if you thought the Biden White House would be accused of ignoring the science? We didn’t think so. But that’s been the charge as two Food and Drug Administration regulators have resigned amid what media leaks claim is too much political agitation for Covid vaccine booster shots.

Count us with the White House on this one. Mounting evidence shows that vaccine efficacy wanes over time as Covid antibodies do, especially for older folks, and that the vaccines are less protective against the Delta variant. This is why the Administration last month issued a joint statement by agency heads that it planned to roll out boosters on Sept. 20. Word leaked Friday that this date might slip for Moderna’s vaccine, in order to collect more data, but perhaps not for Pfizer’s .

Critics, on the left and right, say the Administration has pressured the FDA to approve boosters. They claim that even though protection against infection has declined, vaccines are still highly effective against hospitalization. Some on the left add that it’s better to deploy shots to developing countries.

But the public evidence for boosters is building. A University of California San Diego Health study published this week found that vaccine efficacy against symptomatic illness fell from 94% in June to 65% in July as Delta spread. The “attack rate” for fully vaccinated workers increased 19-fold. Fully vaccinated workers were more likely to get infected in July than unvaccinated workers were in March.