Creating Division

Division

I’ve written a lot about division in the last few weeks.  There were essays about the division in our nation, divisions in the Democratic Party, and the lack of division in the Republican fealty to Trumpism.  Why there was even an essay about trying to remember how to do division of fractions as a substitute teacher:  that whole flipping over and changing to multiplication thing.  Thank goodness for decimals.

And there is plenty of division to talk about.  But there are some apparent divisions that aren’t really there.  And one of those is the so-called big “divide” between the Food and Drug Administration and the White House over Covid “booster” shots.

Boosters

A few weeks ago, the Biden Administration announced that they were prepared to begin booster shots for all Americans.  Folks would be eligible to receive them eight months after their second Pfizer vaccination, with the program beginning on September 20th (that’s today!!).  In that announcement the President himself made sure to say the “magic words”; “Pending FDA approval”.  (Moderna and Johnson and Johnson “boosters” are a few weeks away). 

The FDA didn’t approve the “Biden Plan”.  Perhaps some of the scientists were annoyed that the President got “ahead of their science”.  But to give them full credit, most of the panel simply didn’t feel that the existing evidence for boosters was compelling enough to require a national booster program.  They did, however, approve booster shots for those sixty-five and over, immune compromised, and those working in environments with increased exposure risk. So, I guess the science really says that boosters work, but aren’t overwhelmingly necessary – yet.  

Not Ready Yet

So Joe Biden wasn’t wrong.  Boosters do increase resistance to Covid, including the Delta Variant.  And most of the scientists acknowledge that booster shots are necessary in the long run.  They simply say it’s not time, yet, for everyone to get a Covid vaccine booster shot, particularly when so many in the United States and the world haven’t even gotten the first (or second) shot yet.  64.5% of Americans have received at least one dose.  That percentage includes kids under twelve who cannot get the vaccine.  But the big news this morning – Pfizer released results from their trials with vaccines for five to eleven year old children.  The data looks good, kids are gaining immunity without a lot of side-effects.  The “kids’ vaccine” is on the way.

Sure the President is more than anxious to find a “stop” to Covid.  When he entered office, the “science” said if we could only get 75% of the adult population vaccinated, we could go back to “normal”.  But we didn’t reach that point soon enough, and the Delta Variant changed the Covid rules.  There is a direct correlation between Covid and the President’s approval rating – Joe Biden knows that, like Donald Trump, he will be judged by his handling of the Covid pandemic.  So it should be no surprise he was ready for the next step.

Moving the Ball

And, Biden also knows that when he entered office, there were vaccines developed in the Trump Administration. “Operation Warp Speed” was remarkable, developing amazingly effective vaccines in record time.  But the Trump Administration seemed to lose interest after the election, with little effort to get the vaccine out to the public.  Biden’s team had to pick that “ball” up, and did a remarkable job between January and May getting the vaccine out.

Biden didn’t want to be left “holding the ball” this time should the FDA approve mass booster shots. And he wasn’t.

This Isn’t a Nail

I don’t know why today’s society has to make a controversy over every difference.  I guess once you head down the “division” trail, ever problem looks like a divide (there’s my favorite paraphrase again – if your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail).  The headline could have read, “Biden ready if FDA demands boosters”.  Instead, there’s all the talk about Biden getting “turned down” by the FDA, as if he was applying to the panel, instead of the Pfizer company.  

I guess it makes good headlines – and puts Dr. Fauci “on the spot”, defending the FDA process and the President at the same time.  He did that well.

So where are we?  Currently if you’ve had the vaccine, you have a 1 in 5000 chance of getting a “breakthrough infection”, getting the Covid Delta variant despite vaccination.  That’s a .02% chance (there’s that division thing again).  And even if you do get a breakthrough infection, your risk of serious illness is very small, and risk of hospitalization even smaller.  So get vaccinated.

And get a booster when you can – just like we got the vaccine when we could. I promise, as a sixty-five year old substitute teacher, that will be soon for me.