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The Food and Drug Administration could lay out a national strategy for Covid-19 booster shots next month. Meg Tirrell has the details. While the U.S. prepares for boosters, the World Health Organization is urging wealthy nations to hold off on the extra doses. Rich Mendez has the story. More on the outbreak below.
| | As cases rise, Fauci warns more severe variant could emerge | White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that a more severe Covid variant could emerge as the U.S. daily new case average approaches 100,000 per day. Fauci said in an interview with McClatchy that the U.S. would be "in trouble" if a new variant overtakes delta, which already has a viral load 1,000 times higher than the original Covid strain. He added that the U.S could start experiencing between 100,000 and 200,000 new cases per day as delta spreads, adding that continued vaccinations would help keep increasingly dangerous variants from developing.
-Robert Towey | | | | Boosters? A plan by September, FDA says | FDA's Dr Peter Marks said this week the agency plans to have recommendations for booster shots by September, noting they expect a flurry of new data in the coming weeks, and the importance of being able to give guidance to everyone, not just people who got one kind of shot. Moderna suggested they should come by winter because of the threat of delta, even as it reported the efficacy of its vaccine remained stable out to six months — a caveat, though: the data collection ended before delta was circulating.
-Meg Tirrell | | | | WHO asks wealthy nations to hold off on extra shots | The WHO this week called on wealthy nations to stop the distribution of Covid-19 booster shots, citing vaccine inequity around the world. The agency said the halt should last at least two months, to give the world a chance to meet the director-general's goal of vaccinating 10% of the population of every country by the end of September. The request is part of the WHO's plan to vaccinate 40% of the world by December, according to his senior advisor, Dr. Bruce Aylward. The duration of the moratorium request could be extended if vaccine rates in countries with low rates do not increase.
-Rich Mendez | | | | CVS stops offering J&J vaccine at many of its locations | CVS has stopped offering J&J's single-dose Covid vaccine in its pharmacies, now only making the shots available in roughly 10% of its retail locations, the company told us. A CVS spokesperson declined to go into detail on why the change was made, only saying it would help the drugstore chain's vaccine supply. It is just the latest setback for J&J. Moreover, San Francisco officials earlier in the week said they would allow J&J vaccine recipients to get a booster dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots – an accommodation after high volume of requests from residents.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | | | | Debate over charging the unvaccinated more | In 1902 Massachusetts enacted a mandate for the small pox vaccine, with a $5 penalty for those who refused. Today, some say health insurance companies should charge the unvaccinated a premium surcharge, like smokers, because they are fueling the current wave of hospitalizations and the big costs that come with it. My view: insurers don't want to be in that position and it's not clear they could do it under the ACA. Could the government? Well, the Supreme Court upheld Massachusetts' mandate and penalty in 1905.
-Bertha Coombs | |
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