The new Covid boosters from Pfizer and Moderna, the ones that now target the current Omicron variants, were produced in record time.
They were approved without full human trials. And there’s a reason for that.
“There was no way to wait for full human testing because that would take us through the winter, and what we’re trying to do is protect people for this winter,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an expert on infectious diseases at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Dr. Swartzberg told me he plans to get the booster shot in October, six months after his last Covid shot.
“I don’t have any concerns about safety,” he said. “The tweaks that have been done with this new booster are really very, very minor. And we’ve had a lot of experience, for example, with influenza, where every year we change the vaccine, sometimes very substantive ways, but we don’t go ahead and test for safety every year. After decades of experience, we found that’s not necessary, and I’m confident that that’s the same with these vaccines.”
The updated boosters are expected to prevent hospitalizations and death, but Dr. Swarztberg says we’ll have to wait to see how well they works to prevent asymptomatic, mild and moderate infections.
“I think the issue is: At worst, they’re going to be roughly the same as the old boosters, and at best they will be much better,” he said. “So, I don’t think there’s a downside to getting it, but I don’t know what the upside will be.”
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