Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said on Sunday that his administration is getting “mixed messagings” from the Biden White House when it comes to COVID-19 booster shots.
“I mean we’re getting some mixed messagings out of the administration, out of the CDC, the FDA and the White House and, you know we need clear guidance on these booster shots because it undermines the credibility of it,” Hogan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Hogan noted that there was confusion among people regarding which individuals would be eligible for the COVID-19 booster shot.
The Biden administration had initially signaled that individuals who had received both doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine would be eligible for a booster shot starting in September.
Biden administration officials signaled last month that COVID-19 booster shot rollout for people who had either vaccine would begin as early as Sept. 20, pending approval by both the FDA and a CDC advisory committee. However those plans now seem murky.
However, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walenksy and Janet Woodcock, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), reportedly met White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients to say that only some people who received the Pfizer vaccine may now only be eligible currently for the third shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Additional confusion also swirled about the timeline in which health officials would be administering a third shot to individuals after President Biden said the timeline between second and third shots could be shortened.
Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci clarified that timeline was still eight months after a second dose was administered but noted the timing was flexible.
“We’re still planning on eight months. That was the calculation we made. This rollout will start on the week of September the 20th. But as we’ve said all along, Chuck, in the original statement, that’s the plan that we have, but we are open to data as they come in,” Fauci told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet The Press” last week.