CDC Director Overrules Advisory Panel on Pfizer COVID-19 Booster Eligibility for Frontline Workers

Democrats and public health bureaucrats continue to shout the mantra “follow the science.”

However, the Biden Administration and health agencies conveniently ignore science when it doesn’t agree with their political agenda.

The CDC advisory panel (ACIP) met to deliberate their recommendations on Pfizer/BioNTech booster shots.

After their meeting, the scientist-based panel gave the green light for boosters to individuals age 65+, nursing home residents, and immunocompromised adults.

The panel did NOT advise boosters for frontline workers, which broke away from the FDA’s recommendation:

BOOSTER SHOT PLAN: An FDA advisory panel voted to recommend Pfizer’s COVID vaccine booster for those 65+, frontline workers and other high-risk Americans, but not anyone 16-65, for now. pic.twitter.com/hhmxy5ondp

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) September 17, 2021

But the Biden Administration is determined to push boosters for all eligible Americans.

As a result, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky overruled the agency’s advisory panel and included frontline workers in the group approved for boosters.

It’s a bizarre move that puzzled members of the panel of independent medical experts.

Walensky’s rejection of the panel’s ruling makes the Pfizer/BioNTech boosters available for millions more Americans.

The ambiguous term could include healthcare workers, teachers, grocery store employees, prison guards, and among others.

Anyone whose job is defined “high-risk.”

Despite the panel’s rejection of COVID-19 boosters for frontline workers, Walensky chose politics over science.

And that should concern everyone.

LATEST: Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, partially overruled her agency's advisory panel in a notable departure, adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work. https://t.co/Og4toO64MO

— ABC News (@ABC) September 24, 2021

But this administration keeps pulling muscles patting itself on the back for “following the science,” even though it blatantly ignores the science when the science is politically inconvenient. https://t.co/o72QsG48WG

— NEWS MAKER (@NEWS_MAKER) September 25, 2021

NY Times: CDC Chief Overrules Agency Panel & Recommends Pfizer-BioNTech Boosters for Workers at Risk. In a highly unusual decision, the CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, reversed a move by agency advisers.
When politics drive public health, not expert panels, question everything. pic.twitter.com/zMtaGXut7c

— KBirb (@birb_k) September 24, 2021

“Follow the science” LMAO. Unless the science disagrees with your political agenda. In that case, overrule the science through political hierarchy

If you didn’t recognize the scam already, hope this helps https://t.co/wUmC4781Xt

— E (@ElijahSchaffer) September 24, 2021

Biden's CDC: nah, we're not going to follow what the scientists recommended https://t.co/u63Ink3fIx

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 24, 2021

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, overrules the agency's panel of expert advisors in saying that health care workers should get booster shots.https://t.co/HrURplpSDX pic.twitter.com/bVPtEla79v

— Infection Control Today (@ICT_magazine) September 25, 2021

ABC News reported:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has endorsed an independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, six months after their second dose.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, also partially overruled her agency’s advisory panel in a notable departure by adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work, such as nurses and teachers — a group which the panel rejected in its recommendation. Some panelists said that without further data, they weren’t comfortable with automatically including younger people because of their jobs.

In a statement announcing her decision late Thursday, Walensky pointed to the benefit versus risk analysis she had weighed, and data rapidly evolving.

“In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good,” Walensky said. “While today’s action was an initial step related to booster shots, it will not distract from our most important focus of primary vaccination in the United States and around the world.”

With Walensky’s final sign-off, booster shots will now quickly become available for millions more Americans at pharmacies, doctors’ offices and other sites that offer the Pfizer vaccine as soon as Friday.

The CDC’s independent advisory panel voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend Pfizer boosters for people aged 65 and older, along with long-term care facility residents and people as young as 18, if they have an underlying medical condition.

People younger than 49, however, should only get a third dose if the benefits outweigh the risks, the panel said — a personal consideration to discuss with their doctor.

Walensky’s endorsement at least in part buttons up what has become a seething scientific debate after the Biden administration announced “boosters-for-all” ahead of any reviews from the regulatory bodies, or their independent groups. While the White House’s political appointees had endorsed Biden’s timeline, some of their career scientists and advisers vehemently objected to the incomplete data they were being asked to assess.

National Review weighed in:

NATIONAL POLL: Do You Still Support President Trump?

The FDA recommended booster shots for the elderly, the immunocompromised, and certain workers like “health care workers, teachers and day care staff, grocery workers and those in homeless shelters or prisons.” The CDC advisory panel disagreed, concluding that those frontline workers groups did not need boosters . . . and Walensky chose to overrule them.