Vaccine Advisers Express Disappointment and Anger at Lack of Data Presented During Covid-19 Booster Shot Meetings

A group of vaccine advisers to the federal government have expressed their disappointment and anger at the lack of data presented to them by government scientists and the pharmaceutical company Moderna during meetings last year. The meetings were to discuss whether the new Covid-19 booster shot should be authorized and made available to the public.

Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and leading vaccine and infectious diseases expert, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the evidence for the new versions of the vaccines for the omicron variant of the coronavirus is “underwhelming” and fails to show they are much better than the original shots. Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, also told NBC News that protecting people against Covid infection with the current mRNA technology may be a pipe dream, especially as new coronavirus strains emerge every few months.

A key adviser to the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine panel is questioning whether more Covid booster shots are necessary for healthy, younger people. This is based on data that suggests the updated booster might not be any more effective at preventing Covid-19 infections than the original shots.

US taxpayers have spent nearly $5 billion on the new booster, which has been given to more than 48.2 million people in the US. Vaccine advisers are now questioning the necessity of the booster and the lack of data presented to them during the meetings.