On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla told George Stephanopoulos that booster shots can be provided to older Americans, as well as shots for those who have yet to be vaccinated.
“I think it is also not the right thing to try to resolve it with an ‘or’ when you can resolve it with an ‘and,” he said. “It’s not shall we give boosters or give primary doses to other people. I think the answer is let’s give both boosters and doses to other people.”
CDC director Rochelle Walensky agrees with the agency’s advisory panel that medically vulnerable seniors should receive a booster shot of the vaccine, but the panel has rejected the recommendation that frontline workers receive a booster.
“We are looking forward to being able to vaccinate all these vulnerable people so that we can put an end to this pandemic,” Bourla said.
The debate over the need for a booster may seem unimportant, since some countries – poorer countries – have no vaccines at all. Former CDC director, Tom Frieden, criticized Pfizer and Moderna of not doing enough to supply vaccines to poorer nations.
“While focusing on selling expensive vaccines to rich countries, Moderna and Pfizer are doing next to nothing to close the global gap in vaccine supply. Shameful,” Frieden recently tweeted.
Recently, Pfizer released safety date regarding vaccines for children 05 to 11years of age. “I think we are going to submit this data very soon,” Bourla said. “A matter of days, not weeks.”
When the data has been reviewed and the FDA gives it’s approval, Bourla said Pfizer will begin inoculating children in that age group.
Sources: The Week, ABC News, NY Times.
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