Dr. Paul Offit, an advisor to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) vaccine panel, believes that young and healthy people should not get Covid-19 boosters.
According to the expert, the bivalent boosters focused on the original strain of the virus and its BA.4 and BA variants of Omicron. 5, do not "elicit superior immune responses," so these additional doses should be reserved only for the elderly or those in need of additional protection.
"I believe we should stop trying to prevent all symptomatic infections in healthy, young people by boosting them with vaccines containing mRNA from strains that might disappear a few months later," Offit said.
To prove his point, the consultant used two studies by leading virologists that concluded that antibody levels did not increase with bivalent boosting against newer variants of Omicron.
The expert explained that this could be because people who were immunized with the bivalent vaccine had previously been "primed to respond to the ancestral strain of SARS-CoV-2."
Important perspective by Paul Offit (only neg FDA vote for bivalent) on residual uncertainties over the best COVID booster strategy going forward. He’s in favor of only boosting those in most need of severe disease protection. A very reasonable position. https://t.co/OKNmbPkQ6X
— Benjamin Mazer (@BenMazer) January 11, 2023
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security agreed with Offit and added that it is possible that people's immune systems could be so primed to respond to the ancestral strain "that a reformulated booster is unable to fully stimulate the immune system because it has been ‘imprinted’ by the original version of the virus."
More doses lead to more risk
Recently a study from the Cleveland Clinic also questioned the efficacy of the additional doses. After examining thousands of people, they found the bivalent vaccine to be only 30% effective in preventing infection against the variants of the virus.
However, what was most alarming about the research was the finding that the higher the number of vaccine doses, the higher the risk of contracting coronaviruses.
"The association of increased risk of Covid-19 with higher numbers of prior vaccine doses in our study, was unexpected," the health center stated.
