Dr. Anthony Fauci supports a statement made by the CDC and the FDA after Pfizer's push for a third shot for fully vaccinated adults.
Dr. Anthony Fauci pushes back against Pfizer’s call for a COVID-19 “booster” shot.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, announced on Sunday that despite Pfizer’s push for fully vaccinated adults to receive a third “booster” shot for COVID-19, the CDC and the FDA do not have data to presently support a third shot as a necessity.
Fauci appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union”, and stated, "There's a lot of work going on to examine this in real time to see if we might need a boost. But right now, given the data that the CDC and the FDA has, they don't feel that we need to tell people right now you need to be boosted," according to the outlet.
Pfizer says that their data shows a significant increase in antibodies after a third round, supporting the efficacy of a booster, CNN reports.
However, in a joint statement from the CDC and the FDA, supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH), “This process takes into account laboratory data, clinical trial data, and cohort data -- which can include data from specific pharmaceutical companies, but does not rely on those data exclusively."
During the interview, reporter Jake Tapper asked Fauci about his opinion on changing statements from the FDA and the CDC and its potential in affecting the trust the public has in these agencies.
“You get more information as the time goes by.” Fauci said on CNN.
“So when you get to the point, where you have enough information to make a firm recommendation, that is not flip-flopping. That is making recommendations as the data evolve."
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