One of the country’s top vaccine experts has stirred debate in recent weeks by suggesting that not everyone should get the latest COVID-19 vaccine boosters and that the CDC is “overselling” the new shot.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA’s committee of outside vaccine experts, told Yahoo Finance there are three main groups of people who will benefit the most from the bivalent booster based on current evidence — those who are older than 75, have chronic diseases, or are immunocompromised.
For healthier, younger individuals, the vaccine’s impact isn’t as strong, he said. “I just don’t think it’s going to make much of an impact in otherwise healthy young people. We really should focus on those three groups who are most likely to benefit, because the goal of the vaccine is to protect against serious illness. It’s the only reasonable goal, it’s the only attainable goal,” he said.