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canyonwalkerLast Friday an advisory panel at the FDA voted to recommend Covid-19 booster shots be made available to people aged 65+ and "those at high risk of severe Covid-19". Late yesterday night the CDC granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The EUA goes slightly wider than what the advisory panel recommended. Acting FDA commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock explained boosters are also approved for "certain populations such as health care workers, teachers and day care staff, grocery workers and those in homeless shelters or prisons, among others." (Source: CNN article, 22 Sep 2021).
Today the CDC weighed in as well, though only with another advisory panel vote. The panel voted to recommend boosters for 65+, nursing home residents, and people 18-64 with underlying conditions. The panel voted against a proposal to recommend boosters for "nursing home staff, people who live or work in prisons and homeless shelters, front-line health employees, unpaid caregivers, and other essential workers, like teachers." (Source: CNBC article, 23 Sep 2021.)
Got it? No? Good. It is confusing. Lots of terms aren't defined here. What constitutes "high risk of severe Covid-19"? Which "underlying conditions" count? It isn't the media using vague terms to keep their articles short; these are verbatim what the government agencies are saying. Trying to figure out who's eligible for a booster shot— and specifically whether I or any of my family members are— is like asking one of those Magic 8-Balls from decades ago. REPLY HAZY. TRY AGAIN.
The problem with not knowing isn't just not knowing whether/when I or someone in my family is eligible for a shot, it's that the people administering shots don't know, either. When Hawk and her colleagues were eligible for their shots back in February because their jobs put them in one of the priority groups, many of them reported they were turned away from clinics. Self-appointed arbiters told them they didn't qualify. They refused even to read the paperwork the employees carried to document their eligibility. Meanwhile employees who visited different clinics found that providers there didn't care who came in at all. All anyone had to do was merely say, "Yes, I'm in a priority group," to get the shot.
We need better guidance from our government leaders so this doesn't become a free-for-all.
Will that guidance come tomorrow? Next week?
REPLY HAZY, TRY AGAIN.
Today the CDC weighed in as well, though only with another advisory panel vote. The panel voted to recommend boosters for 65+, nursing home residents, and people 18-64 with underlying conditions. The panel voted against a proposal to recommend boosters for "nursing home staff, people who live or work in prisons and homeless shelters, front-line health employees, unpaid caregivers, and other essential workers, like teachers." (Source: CNBC article, 23 Sep 2021.)
Got it? No? Good. It is confusing. Lots of terms aren't defined here. What constitutes "high risk of severe Covid-19"? Which "underlying conditions" count? It isn't the media using vague terms to keep their articles short; these are verbatim what the government agencies are saying. Trying to figure out who's eligible for a booster shot— and specifically whether I or any of my family members are— is like asking one of those Magic 8-Balls from decades ago. REPLY HAZY. TRY AGAIN.The problem with not knowing isn't just not knowing whether/when I or someone in my family is eligible for a shot, it's that the people administering shots don't know, either. When Hawk and her colleagues were eligible for their shots back in February because their jobs put them in one of the priority groups, many of them reported they were turned away from clinics. Self-appointed arbiters told them they didn't qualify. They refused even to read the paperwork the employees carried to document their eligibility. Meanwhile employees who visited different clinics found that providers there didn't care who came in at all. All anyone had to do was merely say, "Yes, I'm in a priority group," to get the shot.
We need better guidance from our government leaders so this doesn't become a free-for-all.
Will that guidance come tomorrow? Next week?
REPLY HAZY, TRY AGAIN.
