by Ailan Evans
The World Health Organization predicts that vulnerable people will need yearly COVID-19 vaccine boosters and the everyday population will need shots every two years, according to an internal document, Reuters reported Thursday.
The document, Reuters reported, is an assessment set to be discussed Thursday at a board meeting of Gavi, a public-private partnership between health agencies, pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and non-profit organizations. The assessment recommends vulnerable people, such as the elderly, receive annual COVID-19 vaccine boosters, and the general population receive boosters every two years.
The document said boosters were necessary due to the emergence of new COVID-19 variants, and that vaccines would need to be regularly updated, according to Reuters, though the document did not show how these conclusions were reached.
The predictions clash with comments made during a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) meeting Wednesday, in which the CDC said there was no evidence yet to back up the need for yearly boosters.
“Prior to going around and giving everyone boosters, we need to improve the overall vaccination rate,” said Dr. Keipp Talbot, an associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University, at the meeting, NBC News reported.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had predicted in May that yearly boosters might be necessary, CNN reported.
“Instead of having to play whack-a-mole with each individual variant and develop a booster that’s variant-specific, it is likely that you could just keep boosting against the wild type, and wind up getting a good enough response that you wouldn’t have to worry about the variants,” Fauci said during a May 11 Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing.
The document also predicts potential supply problems with vaccines next year, with existing vaccine technologies being phased out and possible regulatory approval issues arising, according to Reuters.
The World Health Organization and Gavi did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Ailan Evans is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
