More People Are Getting Unapproved Fourth Doses of the Covid-19 Vaccine: NYT
- New York Times, by Amanda Morris, Jan. 3, 2022. MSN.
If asked to show her vaccine card, Stacey Ricks can choose from three. Ms. Ricks, 49, a kidney transplant recipient who takes immune suppressing medication, didn’t develop antibodies after her first two Moderna shots. In June, without disclosing she already had received the Moderna shots, she got a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine before federal health officials had approved anyone for a third shot. Getting her fourth and fifth shots was trickier. By July, pharmacy records in the Houston area where she lives finally showed her prior shots.
Armed with a doctor’s note explaining that she hadn’t developed antibodies, Ms. Ricks convinced a pharmacist to give her two doses of the Pfizer vaccine over the summer.
“She kept saying, ‘There’s no clinical data here,’” Ms. Ricks recalled. “And I said, ‘Hey, I am the clinical data.’”
Ms. Ricks is one of many people with compromised immune systems in the U.S. who have sidestepped government guidelines and received unauthorized fourth or fifth shots. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are in charge of determining when additional doses should be administered, but some patients and their doctors feel that federal agencies have acted too slowly to protect the most vulnerable. Israel has already begun rolling out fourth shots — Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday that the country would offer additional shots to people age 60 and over, as well as to medical workers, becoming the first country to roll out an additional booster so broadly.
By comparison, the C.D.C. updated their guidelines in late October to say that immunocompromised groups would be eligible for a fourth dose six months after a third. For those who followed the rules, the earliest eligibility for a fourth would be in late February. But as new variants like Omicron arise and vaccination rates continue to be sluggish in many areas, worrying those with weak immune systems, many of them are getting extra shots without being certain of whether they are safe or effective. Typically, doctors have discretion to use approved medications outside of their recommended uses — so a fully approved vaccine like Pfizer’s could normally be prescribed as doctors see fit.
But, in order to receive and administer any Covid-19 vaccines, providers must sign a legal agreement with the C.D.C. — meaning that if they break the agency’s rules, they risk being kicked out of the vaccination program and could face prosecution. The C.D.C. also previously warned that providers administering unapproved shots may not have protection from patients’ legal claims if something goes wrong. Legal experts say the government has done little to enforce compliance with regulations and seems unlikely to pursue punishments for most providers. People taking the extra shots aren’t doing anything illegal. They could face civil lawsuits if vaccine providers decide to go after them for lying, but that is extremely unlikely...
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/more-people-are-getting-unapproved-fourth-doses-of-the-covid-19-vaccine/ar-AASnzWw
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