What is going on here? The WSJ reports that the FDA is shutting out its own experts in authorizing another booster.
Among the many possible explanatory frames, one haunts me in particular - as explained in my previous post Pod People and Primal Terror
Here is a relevant excerpt:
Marty Makary April 3, 2022 FDA Shuts Out Its Own Experts in
Authorizing Another Vaccine Booster. The Wall Street Journal, https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-shuts-out-its-own-experts-in-authorizing-another-booster-covid-vaccine-pandemic-science-11649016728
Decisions like this only reinforce the perception that Covid
policy is driven by groupthink and politics...
Another committee member, Cody Meissner, agrees. Dr. Meissner, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Children’s Hospital, told me last week that the fourth dose is “an unanswered scientific question for people with a normal immune system.”
A third member of the committee, Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Atlantic that he advised his 20-something son to forgo the third shot, which the FDA recommends for everyone 12 and over.
... Two top FDA officials quit the agency in September complaining of undue pressure to authorize boosters. Marion Gruber, former director of the Office of Vaccine Research and Review, and her deputy, Philip Krause, later wrote about the lack of data to support a broad booster authorization. Hours after the FDA authorized the fourth dose, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave its formal approval to the move—also without convening its external vaccine experts
AND then there are these articles, among others, voicing scientific and medical skepticism about the risk-benefit calculus being deployed by the FDA and WH:
Constanze Kuhlmann, Carla Konstanze Mayer, Mathilda
Claassen, Tongai Maponga, Wendy A Burgers,
Roanne Keeton, et al. (2022, January 18, 2022). Breakthrough infections
with SARS-CoV-2 omicron despite mRNA vaccine booster dose. The Lancet.DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00090-3
Philip Krause and Luciana Borio March 28, 2022 You Likely
Don’t Need a Fourth Covid Shot Unless you’re at high risk, the initial two
vaccine doses are enough. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-likely-dont-need-a-fourth-covid-shot-booster-dose-pfizer-moderna-vaccine-omicron-ba-2-ba2-11648498217
Dr. Krause is a consultant to the World Health Organization
and was deputy director of FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review,
2011-21. Dr. Borio is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on
Foreign Relations and was director for medical and biodefense preparedness
policy at the National Security Council, 2017-19
Israeli study shows 4th shot of COVID-19 vaccine not able to
block Omicron. (2022, January 17). MSN.Com https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-study-shows-4th-shot-of-covid-19-vaccine-not-able-to-block-omicron/ar-AASRT8Q
Lock, S. (2022, January 11). Repeated Covid boosters not
viable strategy against new variants, WHO experts warn. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/12/repeated-covid-boosters-not-viable-strategy-against-new-variants-who-experts-warn
The C.D.C. Isn’t Publishing Large Portions of the Covid Data
It Collects https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/health/covid-cdc-data.html