Biden’s booster plan facing resistance from CDC panel, FDA

Medical experts who advise U.S. regulators on vaccines are chafing at what they perceive as political interference in the review process by the Biden administration.

Last month, the White House announced plans to begin distributing COVID-19 booster shots to Americans Sept. 20. However, the effort still needs the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to sign off. Members of a key panel that advises the CDC on vaccines have pushed back consideration of the plan to mid-September and said this week they were concerned that politics was getting ahead of the process.

It’s “very frightening to me that health-care providers are trying to do the best job that they can, and are taking guidance from HHS and the White House,” said Helen Talbot, a Vanderbilt University professor of medicine and member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, in a meeting Monday.

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, makers of one of the two vaccines included in the booster plan, filed for authorization for the extra shot last month. Moderna Inc. applied for clearance late Wednesday.

Some short-term data from Israel supports the use of booster shots. Yet the public push by the White House to get a rollout underway has raised concerns the administration is rushing ahead without enough data and regulatory oversight, said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Meanwhile, European health authorities said there’s no urgent need for wide use of boosters, although some countries are offering them.