No Booster Shot Needed For Delta Variant Protection Right Now, Says Dr. Fauci – Deadline

Third time’s not necessarily the charm, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday to host Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union talk show.

The infectious diseases expert said that Americans “right now” do not need a Pfizer booster shot to supplement previous doses to protect against the Delta variant of Covid-19. Pfizer has announced it’s working on a “booster” shot to supplement previous vaccinations.

“Right now, given the data and the information we have, we do not need to give people a third shot, a boost, superimposed upon the two doses you get with the mRNA and the one-dose you get with J&J,” said Fauci.

He did hedge as to whether that opinion may change once more research has been done.

“This isn’t something that we say, ‘No we don’t need a boost right now, the story’s ended forever.’ No, there’s a lot of working going on that examines this in real time, to see if we might need a boost,” said Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“But right now, given the data that the [Center for Disease Control] and [Food and Drug Administration] have, they don’t feel that we need to tell people right now you need to be boosted.”

Appearing later on ABC’s This Week, he told host George Stephanopoulos that his opinion isn’t at-odds with Pfizer.

“Even though the CDC and the FDA correctly said, right now, we don’t feel you need a booster, that doesn’t mean that we’re not very, very actively following and gathering all of this information to see if and when we might need it,” Fauci said “And if and when we do, we’ll have everything in place to do it.

“So even though there appears to be a conflict here, there really isn’t,” he added.

Fauci’s comments came as new infections are rising in the US, with blame placed on the Delta variant, a morphed version of Covid-19 that now accounts for the majority of US cases.