rev_mike
Contributing Member
CDC director OKs boosters for 'everyday heroes'; federal contractors must be vaccinated by Dec. 8: COVID-19 updates (msn.com)
CDC director OKs boosters for 'everyday heroes'; federal contractors must be vaccinated by Dec. 8: COVID-19 updates
Christal Hayes, Grace Hauck and Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY 27 mins ago
CDC director OKs boosters for 'everyday heroes'; federal contractors must be vaccinated by Dec. 8: COVID-19 updates
https://twitter.com/share?url=http:...rer=http://a.msn.com/01/en-us/AAOLQuI?ocid=st
WhatsApp Web
"We have the tools to beat COVID-19 if we come together as a country and use the tools we have," Biden said Friday. He added he plans to get his booster shot "as soon as I can get it done."
The president's comments came hours after CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky accepted a series of recommendations from a key panel of advisers to make booster shots for the Pfizer vaccine available for people 65 and older, nursing home residents and some adults who have underlying health problems at least six months after the second dose.
© Susan Walsh, AP Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adjusts her face mask during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 18, 2021.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
She also overruled the panel on endorsing a third shot for at-risk workers, ignoring her own advisers but bringing the CDC policy in line with the Food and Drug Administration's recommendation earlier this week.
Walensky said the decision was a "scientific close call," pointing to the length of the hourslong advisory committee meeting and the heated debate. She ultimately issued the recommendation out of concern for the "everyday heroes of our society," she said.
"Many of our frontline workers, essential works and those in congregate settings come from communities that already have been hardest hit. Withholding access for boosters from these people and communities would only worse the inequities I have committed to fight against," Walensky said in a White House coronavirus task force briefing Friday.
The CDC's endorsement is considered a boon for Biden's campaign to provide booster shots for most Americans – a plan some health officials criticized as premature.
The other two available vaccines – Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – have not received federal authorization for a booster shot, and the CDC advisory panel did not vote Thursday on the issue of mixing boosters.
Walensky said the CDC endorsement of the Pfizer booster is "a first step" and that the agency expected to review similar applications from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson "with urgency" in the future.
CDC director OKs boosters for 'everyday heroes'; federal contractors must be vaccinated by Dec. 8: COVID-19 updates
Christal Hayes, Grace Hauck and Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY 27 mins ago
CDC director OKs boosters for 'everyday heroes'; federal contractors must be vaccinated by Dec. 8: COVID-19 updates
https://twitter.com/share?url=http:...rer=http://a.msn.com/01/en-us/AAOLQuI?ocid=st
WhatsApp Web
"We have the tools to beat COVID-19 if we come together as a country and use the tools we have," Biden said Friday. He added he plans to get his booster shot "as soon as I can get it done."
The president's comments came hours after CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky accepted a series of recommendations from a key panel of advisers to make booster shots for the Pfizer vaccine available for people 65 and older, nursing home residents and some adults who have underlying health problems at least six months after the second dose.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
She also overruled the panel on endorsing a third shot for at-risk workers, ignoring her own advisers but bringing the CDC policy in line with the Food and Drug Administration's recommendation earlier this week.
Walensky said the decision was a "scientific close call," pointing to the length of the hourslong advisory committee meeting and the heated debate. She ultimately issued the recommendation out of concern for the "everyday heroes of our society," she said.
"Many of our frontline workers, essential works and those in congregate settings come from communities that already have been hardest hit. Withholding access for boosters from these people and communities would only worse the inequities I have committed to fight against," Walensky said in a White House coronavirus task force briefing Friday.
The CDC's endorsement is considered a boon for Biden's campaign to provide booster shots for most Americans – a plan some health officials criticized as premature.
The other two available vaccines – Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – have not received federal authorization for a booster shot, and the CDC advisory panel did not vote Thursday on the issue of mixing boosters.
Walensky said the CDC endorsement of the Pfizer booster is "a first step" and that the agency expected to review similar applications from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson "with urgency" in the future.
Attachments
Last edited: