COVID-19 boosters could risk more serious side effects: US health official

The United States is reviewing the need for a third COVID-19 booster shot among residents who have already been vaccinated but needs to see more data to know if additional shots could raise people’s risk of serious side effects, a US health official said Tuesday.

The U.S. government has not made a decision on whether to administer booster shots to residents but sees a greater potential need for them among the elderly and other groups at high risk for severe infection, said Jay Butler, deputy director at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a media briefing.

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Back in May,more than a dozen influential infectious disease and vaccine development experts told Reuters there is growing evidence that a first round of global vaccinations may offer enduring protection against the coronavirus and its most worrisome variants discovered to date.

Some of these scientists expressed concern that public expectations around COVID-19 boosters are being set by pharmaceutical executives rather than health specialists, although many agreed that preparing for such a need as a precaution was prudent.

They expressed fear that a push by wealthy nations for repeat vaccination as early as this year will deepen the divide with poorer countries that are struggling to buy vaccines and may take years to inoculate their citizens even once.

“We don’t see the data yet that would inform a decision about whether or not booster doses are needed,” said Kate O’Brien, director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at the World Health Organization (WHO).

O’Brien said the WHO is forming a panel of experts to assess all variant and vaccine efficacy data and recommend changes to vaccination programs as needed.