Now that the FDA has given its blessing to a strategy of mixing and matching Covid-19 vaccinations for use as booster shots, it’s plausible that beyond the mandate of simply being vaccinated, the next round of mandates could include booster shots as well. President Biden has been pushing a booster shot plan since September, which recently was revealed to be stuck in a quagmire of his own health agencies as numerous officials still don’t fully agree on the broad need for booster shots among the vaccinated population.
However, as these drugs inch toward more full and complete approval, it’s likely that Covid booster shot mandates will be coming at some point in the near future now that the “mix and match” booster shot strategy has been approved:
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized booster shots for tens of millions of recipients of Moderna’s two-dose coronavirus vaccine and the roughly 15 million who got Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot, significantly expanding the nation’s campaign to bolster protection for vulnerable people.
The agency also updated its authorizations for all three vaccines — Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer-BioNTech — to allow medical providers to boost people with a different Covid-19 vaccine than the one they initially received, a strategy known as “mix and match.”
Mandating vaccinations required the dominoes to fall into place. It’s difficult for governments to forcibly vaccinate people with drugs that aren’t fully approved beyond emergency use. As these barriers continue to fall, places like New York City and the state of California, for example, have been emboldened to announce new mandates for school students and city employees.
After all, if the FDA and/or CDC determine that protection from the vaccines wane over time, such as after 6 months, then it’s entirely likely that businesses and governments will be mandating booster shots down the road. IF your immunity wanes, are you really “fully vaccinated”? Therefore, if you’re no longer “fully vaccinated” it’s likely the boosters will be mandatory to keep your “fully vaccinated” status.
New York City, for example, has now announced mandatory vaccination for city employees with no opt-out for testing instead:
The city workers — including firefighters and cops — will be mandated to get their first dose by 5 p.m. on Oct. 29, the mayor said. Members of the city workforce who have not started their vaccine series by Nov. 1 will be placed on unpaid leave until they provide proof of vaccination, according to de Blasio.
“It’s a mandate now for all city agencies, all city workers. It’s time for everyone to get vaccinated,” he said Wednesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Look for booster mandates to follow soon if your original vaccine took place in early 2021 given the way the Biden administration seems intent on pushing booster shots across the board.
It also appears that a change has taken place within the FDA, where voices of dissent over booster shots have been quieted, the agency seems to be moving full speed ahead with approving various booster vaccine options for all shots including Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.
There is some concern, however, that mandating booster shots will give unvaccinated people more reason to avoid vaccination entirely, as has been the documented case in Israel:
https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1449793356595441668
As the Tweet notes, government actions often backfire and turn into government stupidity. If you want someone to do something they don’t want to do, just force them to do it and see what kind of outcome you get. As for mandatory booster shots, if the United States sees a reaction like Israel has, overall first-time vaccination rates may drop in response to mandatory booster shots.
The Biden administration must tread lightly on this subject, although treading lightly has not been the way they operate with regard to any of the ill-advised and poorly-conceived Covid policies they’ve enacted so far.
