On Sunday, former FDA head and current Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb appeared on “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan to discuss COVID-19 vaccination, as well as ongoing mandate efforts.
During the segment, following a broader discussion about booster shots, Brennan asked Gottlieb if the CDC should define “fully vaccinated” as those who have had COVID booster shots.
“You’ve already seen governors in Connecticut and New Mexico say three doses is fully vaccinated,” Brennan stated. “Should the CDC say you need a booster to be considered fully vaccinated?”
Gottlieb replied that he believes “at some point they’re going to, but not this year.”
He continued:
I think eventually this will be considered a three dose vaccine, but I would be hard pressed to believe CDC is going to make that recommendation any time soon, in part because of this debate about whether or not younger people who are at less risk should be receiving that third dose, in states where governors are looking to do this, and I think some local communities will do it. Some businesses are probably going to do it quite soon. I think in cases where entities are going to mandate three doses for people who are six months out from the second dose, they’re doing that because they’re using the vaccine as a way to control transmission and try to end this pandemic.
Should the CDC say you need a booster to be considered *fully* vaccinated?@ScottGottliebMD tells @margbrennan “At some point they’re going to, but not this year…eventually this will be considered the three dose vaccine.” pic.twitter.com/PXAiSJ9tig
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) November 21, 2021
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:
BRENNAN: Last Sunday, you told us it was one of the biggest missed opportunities for the administration to not have rolled out boosters and made them eligible for all earlier on. The CDC now has said all adults may get a booster shot and that those over age 50 should get a booster. Can you interpret that language for us?
GOTTLIEB: Well, look, I think the reluctant nature by which CDC has been stepping into this debate reflects a broader ambivalence or a broader debate happening in a public health community about whether the vaccines should be used as tools to protect people from bad outcomes from COVID, or whether they should be used as tools to try to end the pandemic and control transmission. If you’re recommending boosters for people 50 and over at this point, you’re recommending a booster so that you can improve their immunity, protect them from a bad COVID outcome because we see clear evidence of declining immune protection from the vaccines after six months, and that person is now at increased risk of having a severe case of COVID and having a bad outcome. If you are recommending boosters at this point for younger individuals, people who are 20, people who are in their teens, even 30s, in that case, there is a perception that you’re recommending the booster not necessarily to protect that individual because they probably still have pretty good immune protection from the first two doses and they were at lower risk anyway. But you’re recommending the booster as a tool to try to make them less likely to pass on the virus.
BRENNAN: You’ve already seen governors in Connecticut and New Mexico say three doses is fully vaccinated. Should the CDC say you need a booster to be considered fully vaccinated?
GOTTLIEB: I think at some point they’re going to, but not this year, I think eventually this will be considered a three dose vaccine, but I would be hard pressed to believe CDC is going to make that recommendation any time soon, in part because of this debate about whether or not younger people who are at less risk should be receiving that third dose, in states where governors are looking to do this, and I think some local communities will do it. Some businesses are probably going to do it quite soon. I think in cases where entities are going to mandate three doses for people who are six months out from the second dose, they’re doing that because they’re using the vaccine as a way to control transmission and try to end this pandemic. And you know, there are people in the public health community who don’t think that that’s an inappropriate way to use the vaccine. But this is a debate that’s going on right now in the public health community. And CDC’s sort of stuttering approach to how they’ve embraced boosters is reflective of that debate.