Friday, January 27, 2023

Brits yank back COVID vaccination program as US plunges forward with one-size-fits-all strategy


The U.S. one-size-fits-all COVID-19 vaccination strategy is becoming even more of an international outlier

  • The UK has decided to stop giving boosters to people under 50 "who are not in a clinical risk group" - and ratchet back primary-series vaccination as well
  • This stands in stark contrast to the FDA's oft-adversarial relationship with its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), which has been given limited information before votes on COVID vaccine authorizations, overruled or simply excluded from any role in key FDA decisions.

Boosters for ages 16-49 will end Feb. 12, 2021

  • Primary-series vaccination in general will become "more targeted": adults 50 and up, residents and staff in care homes, "frontline health and social care workers," 12-49 year-olds "who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression," and adolescents who are "carers."

The committee said its recommendations were informed by peak levels of prior infection, judging by antibody surveillance:

  • 97% of adults, 93-99% of ages 12-15, and 74-98% of 8-11
  • Not all hospitalisations and deaths ascribed to SARS-CoV-2 infection are vaccine-preventable events," the committee said.

July hospitalization rates by age group

  • Hospitalization rates in July were not meaningfully different by vaccination status in several younger age groups, while the vaccinated had substantially higher rates in ages 40-69.
  • "Severe" hospitalizations were higher for vaccinated 5-11 and 40-59 year-olds.

https://justthenews.com/world/europe/brits-yank-back-covid-vaccination-program-us-plunges-forward-one-size-fits-all

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