U.S. drug regulators unmoved by Pfizer plan to seek Covid booster authorization

In an unusual exchange, the Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Disease Control on Thursday said there isn’t scientific evidence that COVID-19 booster shots are required, hours after drug maker Pfizer
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said it would seek authorization for a Covid booster shot to help contain the Delta variant.

• Pfizer
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  and its German biotech partner BioNtech
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  had indicated that initial study data encouraged them to seek authorization for a booster shot, with evidence that there is a greater risk of reinfection six months after a vaccination.

• The two companies said that such a shot after six months produces antibodies 5 to 10 times higher than after two doses, and that it could provide high degrees of protection against the highly transmissible and fast-spreading Delta variant.

• The FDA and the CDC said in their release that “Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time,” and that they were “prepared for booster doses if and when the science demonstrates that they are needed.”

• Mary Daly, the president of the Federal Reserve of San Francisco, warned in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday that because of the Delta variant, “to premature declare victory on Covid” was “the biggest risk to global growth going forward.”

The outlook:  The race between vaccines and the virus is still on. Meanwhile, as Daly noted, large parts of the world remain unvaccinated, a major headwind on global growth.