The One Thing Everyone Should Know About Fall COVID Vaccines
Paul Offit is not an anti-vaxxer. His résumé alone would tell you that: A pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he is the co-inventor of a rotavirus vaccine for infants that has been credited with saving “hundreds of lives every day”; he is the author of roughly a dozen books on immunization that repeatedly debunk anti-vaccine claims. And from the earliest days of COVID-19 vaccines, he’s stressed the importance of getting the shots. At least, up to a certain point.
Like most of his public-health colleagues, Offit strongly advocates annual COVID shots for those at highest risk. But regularly reimmunizing young and healthy Americans is a waste of resources, he told me, and invites unnecessary exposure to the shots’ rare but nontrivial side effects. If they’ve already received two or three doses of a COVID vaccine, as is the case for most, they can stop—and should be told as much.
His view cuts directly against the CDC’s new COVID-vaccine guidelines, following an advisory committee’s 13–1 vote: Every American six months or older should get at least. For his less-than-full-throated support for annual vaccination, Offit has become a lightning rod. in medicine and public health have called his opinions “.” He’s also been made into an unlikely star in anti-vaccine circles. Public figures with prominently shot-skeptical stances have his quotes. that have featured vaccine misinformation have called him up for quotes and sound bites—a sign, he told me, that as a public-health expert “you screwed up somehow.”
