Monday, July 11, 2022

On our weekly call with the secretary, I brought up the issue that we need to be much more proactive in warning people about the spread of infection and that we have to be pushing the wearing of masks and getting people vaccinated and boosted. The secretary agreed and we're going to discuss this even more with Ashish tomorrow. Washington Post article describes my pushing to be more aggressive during this surge of BA.5 variant: Biden officials push to offer second booster shots to all adults Plan would make coronavirus shots available to millions more amid rising cases, hospitalizations. By Dan Diamond, Laurie McGinley and Lena H. Sun While the booster plan still needs formal sign-off from regulators and public health officials, it has the backing of White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha and Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, according to five officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan. In an interview, Fauci said that he’s “leaning” toward allowing second booster shots for younger adults, pending authorization from the Food and Drug Administration and agreement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While persuading those who haven’t gotten vaccinated or fully vaccinated to get the full regimen and their first booster shot is critical, Fauci said, “we also need to allow people who are under 50 to get their second booster shot, since it may have been months since many of them got their first booster.” “If I got my third shot [in 2021], it is very likely the immunity is waning,” Fauci added.