Scientists: Booster shots not needed now

Fully vaccinated people in the general public don't need coronavirus booster shots now, an international group of scientists — including two outgoing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine regulators— according to a paper published Monday in a medical journal.

In the paper published in The Lancet, the experts said that they reviewed studies of the vaccines' performance and concluded that shots are working well despite the extra-contagious Delta variant, especially against severe disease. 

"Currently available studies do not provide credible evidence of substantially declining protection against severe disease, which is the primary goal of vaccination," said study author Ana-Maria Henao-Restrepo, a World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist, in a statement.

The experts said boosters may be useful for some people with weak immune systems but providing boosters wouldn't outweigh the benefit of using those doses to protect the billions of people who remain unvaccinated worldwide. 

"Even in populations with fairly high vaccination rates, the unvaccinated are still the major drivers of transmission" at this stage of the pandemic, they concluded.

The Biden administration has proposed administering vaccine boosters eight months after the initial shots. The White House has begun planning for boosters later this month, if both the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agree.

Experts from the WHO have called for countries to delay broad booster plans as many countries are still suffering from a lack of vaccine supply in the face of outbreaks driven by the Delta variant.

The report comes after President Joe Biden last week announced a massive push to mandate vaccination among nearly two-thirds of the US workforce. 

A slim majority of Americans are now in favor of vaccine mandates at work as well as school and large sporting events, according to a CNN poll published Monday. 

The poll, conducted by a market and survey research firm SSRS and CNN from Aug 3 to Sept 7 among 2,199 US adults, shows that 51 percent of responders generally support vaccine mandates in public places and believe they are "an acceptable way to increase the vaccination rate," while 49 percent believe them to be an "unacceptable infringement on personal rights".

Americans are more supportive than they were in an April poll of vaccine mandates for office workers, when narrow majorities instead opposed the mandates. 

According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, some 8 in 10 Democrats support vaccine mandates for workers, while more than 6 in 10 Republicans are opposed. 

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Sunday that the vaccine requirements are "an appropriate legal measure".

"We have to put this in context. There are requirements that we put in workplaces and in schools every day to make sure that workplaces and schools are safe," Murthy said on ABC's This Week on Sunday.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that even broader vaccine mandates may be needed to control the pandemic in the US if vaccinations don't increase.

Millions of Americans still need to get vaccinated to help get the pandemic under control, which could take "many, many" more vaccine mandates' Fauci said. 

Dr Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner, said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation that "the downside of this mandate ... and taking something that was subtly political and making it overtly political — could outweigh any of the benefits we hope to achieve". 

Biden's new mandates have been met with vociferous opposition by Republicans, with several saying they would challenge the orders in court.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday warned businesses in the state that they could be fined $5,000 if they ask for proof of vaccination.

"We are not going to let people be fired because of a vaccine mandate," the Republican governor said. 

Biden's mandate says that employers with more than 100 workers must require the vaccine or perform weekly testing. Businesses that don't comply could face a $14,000 fine per violation.

DeSantis also questioned the federal focus being entirely on vaccinations.

"If you were really following science, you would acknowledge natural immunity. Instead, they ignore it ... if you do not acknowledge that — you are not following science. This is about using government power control to mandate, not the underlying medical issues," he said.

Meanwhile,  data from Johns Hopkins University show COVID-19 deaths among people under 55 have roughly matched highs near 1,800 a week set during last winter's surge. The data show weekly tallies for overall COVID-19 deaths, meanwhile, remain well under half of the pandemic peak near 26,000 reached in January, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Heng Weili in New York contributed to this story.