Confusion reigns over vaccine booster rollout

Biden administration officials got what they wanted: booster shots of Pfizer’s vaccine are now available to broad swathes of the U.S. population.

Experts said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky’s decision to expand on the recommendations from the agency’s expert panel will make boosters available for health care workers, teachers, grocery store workers and other frontline workers. President Biden on Friday said there could be 60 million Americans who fit the bill.

But some experts say the loose definitions of these categories make boosters available to “almost everyone,” and states and providers are bracing for confusion as the Biden administration begins rolling out booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Chaotic and at times disparate messaging from administration health officials over the past month has culminated in a complicated set of recommendations about who should be getting booster shots, and why.

Keep it simple: “There’s going to be confusion. If we are going to create guidelines that are essentially making the vaccine available to almost everyone, the simplest solution is, make it available to everyone,” said Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at NYU and Bellevue Hospital.

“The best public health programs are the ones that are simple and easy to understand and clear, and the more complexity you build into it, the more difficult it is to roll out,” she added.

In deciding to give boosters based on occupation, Walensky aligned CDC policy with the FDA’s authorization. But neither agency specifically defined who qualifies as a high risk worker. It’s up to the individual to make the decision, and there’s no specific qualifications. It’s self-attestation.