September 20, 2021

Top advisers to President Joe Biden pushed for his administration to announce a broad booster rollout for September in part because of fears that the U.S. could run short of doses needed to offer the shots to its entire population if vaccines’ protection decreased suddenly, according to two senior officials with knowledge of the matter.

The internal campaign coincided with pleas from international leaders for the U.S. to do more to help lower-and middle-income countries secure initial doses. Biden’s team wanted to make sure the U.S. would have enough supply for the 40 percent of eligible Americans who still needed their first shots and those who would eventually need a boost, the officials said — despite the country’s deep vaccine stockpile.

In a series of meetings over the past two months, Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, and some of the most senior White House officials argued that the U.S. needed to protect itself, pointing to data from Israel that showed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was becoming less effective against infection and severe disease. And if domestic data had yet to catch up to the distressing reality in Israel, it soon would, those officials argued.

Read more:

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/20/biden-vaccine-booster-supply-513134