When the Food and Drug Administration releases its full set of data on the COVID-19 vaccine, it will likely show that people who are at high risk with the disease will need a booster vaccination, Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, tells Newsmax.
"The data out of Israel seems pretty clear to me that people over 60, people in high-risk groups need a third shot," Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America" Tuesday.
Jha added that both Moderna and Pfizer have filed their own data on third shots to the FDA, and with the full set of data expected to be released in the next week or so, he expects that it will be determined that people at high risk will need a booster shot at about the six-month point after their second vaccine.
"Let's see the full set of data when it's made available from the FDA, and then we can decide," said Jha.
Meanwhile, there is a "lot of good data" coming from Israel, but Jha said he's also like to see more information coming from sources in the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control put out some information last week, said Jha, but "not nearly enough."
"We are not doing the same systematic tracking of this disease the way Israel is, the way Germany is," said Jha. "It bothers me because the controls aren't the same. Israel's a great country, but it's a much smaller country, and it's far, far away."
The doctor also commented on President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate order, and said he agrees with statements Dr. Anthony Fauci and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made earlier this year against measures on a national level.
"Nobody should be getting shamed," said Jha. "There has been this sort of rhetoric against people who are not vaccinated, blaming them. I don't like it. I don't think it's useful. I understand people can get frustrated, but sort of turning on each other is not where we want to be in terms of mandates."
When it comes to Biden's order, Jha said he does support saying to large companies that they should require vaccines or order testing weekly for the nonvaccinated.
"The idea is that unvaccinated people, especially with the Delta variant, do pose a risk to other unvaccinated people and potentially to immunocompromised, vaccinated people, so I don't think that's unreasonable," said Jha. "I don't see that as a federal mandate and I certainly don't think there Jha also spoke about the reports that a vaccine could be available for children ages 5 and 11, and said a lower dose or potentially no second dose would make sense.
"As soon as the data comes out we've got to look at that, but that might be a reasonable option," he said.
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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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