Not Every Question Has a Scientific Answer
When President Joe Biden announced last month that the U.S. would offer a third vaccine dose to Americans who had already received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, he exposed a divide between an administration that has pledged to “follow the science” and many prominent health experts who disagreed with the decision. I am a physician and public-health professional specializing in infectious diseases, and I can think of many potential scientific, regulatory, logistical, and ethical objections to Biden’s announcement.
But this was not, fundamentally, a question for science. It was a question for democracy.
Given that elected officials’ primary obligation is to protect the safety of their constituents, Biden made a rational judgment when presented with evidence that a third dose might provide additional COVID-19 protection to vaccinated Americans and that the United States has
