Q&A of the Day – What Do We Know About the New COVID Boosters?
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio Kudos to Ladapo for publicly opposing the new covid jabs. Were the feds even able to prove any effectiveness before approving them?
Bottom Line: On Monday the FDA approved a new round of COVID-19 boosters from both Pfizer and Moderna which are said to combat the current XBB.1.5 subvariant of the virus. The greenlighting of the new boosters came with instant authorization and as a result the new immunizations are expected to be widely available by the end of the week. In approving the new COVID-19 vaccines the FDA said this: Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death. The public can be assured that these updated vaccines have met the agency’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality. We very much encourage those who are eligible to consider getting vaccinated. Florida’s Surgeon General Dr. Jospeh Ladapo had what you might call a slightly different take... in issuing his recommendation against them he said: There’s essentially no evidence for it. These new mRNA COVID-19 vaccines include the fact that they actually cause cardiac injury in many people … call it subclinical myocarditis, its clinical significance is really unknown. There are a lot of red flags. So, what do we really know about these just approved boosters?
Those authorized for, and recommended by the FDA, for these new COVID-19 shots are:
- Individuals 6 months through 4 years of age who have previously been vaccinated
- Individuals 5 years of age and older regardless of previous vaccination
The FDA also notes that unvaccinated individuals 6 months through 4 years of age are eligible to receive three doses of the updated authorized Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine or two doses of the updated authorized Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine. In issuing the authorization the FDA stated (they’re): confident in the safety and effectiveness of these updated vaccines and the agency’s benefit-risk assessment demonstrates that the benefits of these vaccines for individuals 6 months of age and older outweigh their risks. Now, in addressing the skepticism of Dr. Lapado and other booster skeptics, it’s in that statement that there’s an interesting admission. The FDA literally said that in their view “the benefits outweigh the risks”. It’s an admission that accepting these COVID-19 booster shots do come with medical risks. Just theoretically, in their view, the benefits outweigh the risks. And about those risks...
Side effects of the shots are said to be consistent with previous mRNA COVID shots which means the potential for: headaches, chills, fever, nausea and pain/swelling at the injection location. And as noted... Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines have been associated with a small but increased risk of myocarditis, the inflammation of the heart muscle, mostly in young men. Many people, and many doctors for that matter, allege other side effects which continue to be undisclosed including various autoimmune responses. That, however, remains outside of official guidance. So, in answer to today’s question let’s talk about effectiveness.
One of the first interesting knowns is that these vaccines were developed to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant of COVID as already noted. However, as of the most recent weekly reported COVID data, only 3% of current COVID cases across the country are of that variant. There are now two other dominant subvariants. Those advocating for the vaccines are saying that there should still be effectiveness against them. But here’s what we know for a fact.
- There’s zero clinical data supporting efficacy of the just approved COVID-19 vaccines for the variants responsible for 97% of COVID-19 cases currently.
Without specifically disclosing this researched fact the FDA seemed to be aware this may be found out and of concern and stated deep within their announcement: The extent of neutralization observed by the updated vaccines against currently circulating viral variants causing COVID-19, including EG.5 and BA.2.86, appears to be of a similar magnitude to the extent of neutralization observed with prior versions of the vaccines against corresponding prior variants against which they had been developed to provide protection. This suggests that the vaccines are a good match for protecting against the currently circulating COVID-19 variants. This is where the conversation potentially borders on the absurd. Anyone remember back to when we were told that if we got the original COVID vaccine we’d be protected and that’d be the end of it? Anyone recall how many people received, one, two, three, six COVID shots and yet still have been regularly contracting COVID (we currently need look no further than the First Lady).
Now, maybe it remains the case that those at highest risk of the worst symptoms from any viral infection could benefit from one of these. That’s a decision between a patient and a doctor. But the guidance that’s provided by the FDA is that at best these stand to be about as effective as the previous ones. I know what that means from my perspective. As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts. Those are the facts pertaining to the new COVID-19 vaccines.