Pfizer seeks clearance for third dose against Delta. Towards a permanent emergency?
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced Thursday night that they will seek FDA clearance for a third "booster" dose of their COVID vaccines that should offer greater protection against the Delta variant (despite the fact that both Pfizer and its rival Moderna have repeatedly insisted that its vaccines are still effective against all known variants, including Delta), The Hill reports.
In a statement, the company referred to data from Israel, where government scientists estimated the true efficacy of the Delta vaccine to be around 64 percent, leaving patients particularly vulnerable to serious illness and death. The booster dose should ideally be given within 6-12 months of vaccination.
"Based on the totality of data they have to date, Pfizer and BioNTech believe that a third dose may be useful within 6-12 months after the second dose to maintain the highest levels of protection," the companies said.
The company said it is planning to launch clinical trials for a modified reformulated vaccine to specifically target the Delta variant. However, the company now believes a booster dose could be a more effective strategy. The news is surprising, considering that the FDA has not yet approved the first generation of vaccines, accepted only for emergency use and on which all studies on the side effects have not yet been completed. Here Pfizer instead seems to want to introduce a "permanent emergency regime" for vaccines, to be used against various variants without ever having actual clinical evaluations. After Delta there are Lambda, Gamma, and Ypsilon, already existing. What do we do, delete all the legislation and proceed by trial and error?
Eventually, the CDC and the FDA will decide whether to recommend a third dose, but so far they have seemed more interested in protecting the interests of pharmaceutical companies than in science.
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Pfizer article seeks clearance for third dose against Delta. Towards the permanent emergency? comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/pfizer-chiede-lautorizzazione-per-la-terza-dose-contro-delta-verso-lemergenza-permanente/ on Fri, 09 Jul 2021 07:00:34 +0000.