September 19, 2021

FDA Panel Decision on COVID Boosters “Not the End of the Story,” Fauci Says

Nor was it a mistake, he insists. And the process is far from over.

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On Friday, an independent advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration voted against recommending a Pfizer booster shot for the general public. It did, however, vote to recommend that those 65 and older and at risk of severe disease be eligible for a third dose of the COVID vaccine.

Top health official Dr. Anthony Fauci, a proponent of the wide use of boosters, responded to the decision on Sunday, saying it “is not the end of the story.”  

“I don’t think they made a mistake,” Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union, “but the one thing I think people need to realize: That data are coming in, literally on a daily and weekly basis…They’re going to continue to look at this literally in real-time.” 

In recent days, the media has framed the panel’s recommendation, which is non-binding, as a “blow” and “stinging setback” for the Biden administration, which had proposed booster shots beginning as early as September 20 as part of its pandemic response plan. But Fauci emphasized Sunday that approval from the FDA was always baked into the proposal. 

“It was always pending the evaluation of all of the totality of the data from the United States, from Israel, and any bit of data that we could get by the advisory committee to the FDA,” he said. “They did that in the proper deliberative process and they came up with a recommendation which I think is a good recommendation.”

When Tapper reminded Fauci that only days before he’d said a panel decision against boosters would be “a mistake,” Fauci pushed back: “That’s the reason why we have qualified groups of people who together as a committee examine all the data and make a decision…Data will continue to come in, and I believe you are gonna see an evolution of this process.” (It’s worth noting that, as my colleague Lil Kalish reports, many experts have cautioned against the rush to dole out boosters when so many people in low-income countries have yet to receive a first dose. Fauci has argued that America can—and is—providing boosters while also supplying vaccines to other nations.)

Echoing Fauci’s stance, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins told Fox News Sunday that he expects the FDA to approve boosters for those under 65 in the coming weeks. “I think the big news is that they actually did approve the initiation of boosters, and, remember, they’re taking a snapshot of right now…It would surprise me if it does not become clear over the next few weeks that administration of boosters may need to be enlarged.”

“What you’re seeing here is science playing out in a very transparent way,” he said. “This is the way it ought to be.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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