A drastic shift in national policy recommends that only people 65 and older and others with certain health risks should get annual COVID-19 vaccines.
But, at least one local vaccine expert is concerned that this new guidance could increase the pool of people not getting vaccinated at all.
UPMC Chief Medical Officer Don Yealy was a guest on the Marty Griffin Show.
“Even with the new FDA restrictions there’s at least 100-million and probably closed to 200-million people in America who are still eligible and we won’t get anywhere near that amount and so I don’t want this to be misinterpreted as a signal that vaccines don’t work,” said Yealy.
Dr. Yealy says what the new guidance is really saying, is that the benefit of the vaccine is different among people, depending on age and medical condition.
So, they want to gather more information in the subset that they're not sure about. See the interview above.