Federal bureaucracy hindered the rollout of booster shots, as they should have become more widely available months earlier than they did, and that meant fewer Americans got their third shot than should have, Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health said Sunday.
"Around late July, early August, I started seeing pretty compelling data that people needed that third shot," the doctor told "Fox News Sunday." "When the president came out Aug. 18, I think, and said every adult should get one, I agreed with him."
But after that, three months were spent fighting the bureaucracy, and "it slowed us down," said Jha.
"It's one of the reasons why so few Americans have gotten a booster, particularly high-risk people who absolutely need it."
Jha, however, said he remains "pretty unconvinced" that people will need a fourth COVID shot unless the goal is to block all infections.
However, if the goal is to block serious illness or death, "which I think should be our primary goal," then another booster shot shouldn't be needed.
But he does think that people will need to have had three shots to be considered fully vaccinated.
"We have lots of vaccines that are a three-shot series, so I don't think the idea of a three-shot COVID vaccine series to be fully vaccinated is either unprecedented or unusual," he said. "That is where the science is landing right now and I think in the upcoming weeks and months the CDC is going to revise it to say fully vaccinated is three shots."
Meanwhile, Jha said the news coming from South Africa that omicron variant COVID infections are already starting to drop is a "hopeful sign" that the wave of infections that is sweeping across the United States has peaked quickly and will come down fast as well.
Schools are already planning to stay closed in the first week of January, and Jha called that "really unfortunate."
"Here we are almost two years into the pandemic," he said. "We know how to keep schools open, we know what to keep them safe…we have all sorts of tools to keep schools open, so I don't really understand why school districts are doing this, and I think we can keep schools open and we should absolutely keep schools open."
He acknowledged that there may be times where staffing shortages may make it hard to keep schools open, but "that should be the only context" to consider when closing them.
Jha also said that he agrees with the Centers for Disease Control and other experts who say holiday gatherings are safe this year, and he does think people should be tested before they get together, especially when high-risk people are involved.
However, there is "plenty of vaccine supply" but not enough tests, and that's something that should have been handled months ago, said Jha.
"I'm disappointed that this is where we are as a country right now," he said. "I'm hoping by January we are going to see a lot more testing available, but it would have helped over the holiday season."
Jha, meanwhile, said he does think the Biden administration has gotten parts of its response to the omicron and surges right, but there are still some issues.
"I think the push for boosters, of vaccines, that's all been terrific and even now you can go out and get a vaccine tomorrow," said Jha. "But the administration has not done enough on getting ready through testing and communications. I'm hoping that this time around with the president's promise of 500 million tests widely available in January, that finally we will be able to get that issue under control."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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