Sunday shows – Boosters in the spotlight

by The Hill staff - 09/19/21 11:33 AM ET

Reaction to a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel’s recommendation on COVID-19 booster shots dominated the Sunday morning political talk shows.

The panel voted on Friday to recommend booster shots of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 65, as well as those who are at risk of severe disease — but only after voting against widespread boosters for everyone over the age of 16.

Read The Hill’s complete coverage below.

NIH director expects booster shots to be expanded, despite FDA advisers’ recommendation

By JOSEPH CHOI

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said on Sunday that it would “surprise” him if COVID-19 booster shot aren’t expanded, despite a recommendation from a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel advising against widespread use.

“I think the big news is that they actually did approve the initiation of boosters and remember they’re taking a snapshot of right now. We’re going to see what happens in the coming weeks,” Collins said while appearing on “Fox News Sunday.” “It would surprise me if it does not become clear over the next few weeks, that administration of boosters may need to be enlarged.”

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Fauci on FDA advisers’ booster recommendations: ‘I don’t think they made a mistake’

By MONIQUE BEALS

Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that he thinks that a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel made a “good recommendation” to give COVID-19 booster shots only to older and higher-risk Americans.

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Fauci: Data for Moderna, Johnson & Johnson booster shots ‘a few weeks’ out

By MONIQUE BEALS

“We are definitely paying strong attention to both the J&J people, and those who received a Moderna. And the actual data that we’ll get that third shot for the Moderna and second shot for the J&J is literally a couple to a few weeks away,” Anthony Fauci said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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Fauci: Data on children’s vaccines should be available in fall

By OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN

“What we’re going to almost certainly see is that sometime in the next few weeks as we get into October, we’ll be able to see the vaccines for children…get enough data to be presented for safety and immunogenicity,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”

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Mississippi governor: Biden vaccine mandates an ‘attack’ on ‘hard-working Americans’

By MONIQUE BEALS

“The reality is this is an attack by the president on hard-working Americans and hard-working Mississippians who he wants to choose between getting a jab in their arm and their ability to feed their families,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said.

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Gottlieb: Government’s early COVID-19 response was a ‘failure of vision’

By JORDAN WILLIAMS

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the government’s early response to the coronavirus pandemic was a “failure of vision.”

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COVID-18 origins may never be known, Gottlieb says

By JOSEPH CHOI

“Either we find the intermediate host — the animal that spread COVID — or there’s a whistleblower inside China. Or someone close to this, who knows that this came out of a lab, comes forward, defects, goes overseas, or we intercept some communication that we shouldn’t have had access to. Absent something like that, we’re not going to be able to answer this question,” former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Scott Gottlieb said while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

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Clyburn on Democrats’ $3.5T spending bill: ‘I feel very comfortable that we’re gonna get there’

By MONIQUE BEALS

“Our leadership is on this. We are working with everybody in all corners of our party. They’re trying to get to a common ground on these issues, and I feel very comfortable that we’re gonna get there,” House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said.

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Budget committee chairman calls debt ceiling fight ‘a ridiculous position to be in’

By JOSEPH CHOI

“We have several options for raising the debt ceiling, which is absolutely, absolutely mandatory,” Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), chair of the House Budget Committee, said while appearing on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’ve never defaulted on our debt and in history. This is really kind of a ridiculous position to be in we’re the only country in the world that has a debt ceiling that works like this.”

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Mullen defends Milley’s conversations with China as ‘routine’

By OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN

“Having communications with counterparts around the world is routine, and even having them now with China,” former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen told host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”

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GOP senator: Republicans will lose if they relitigate the past

By MONIQUE BEALS

“If we relitigate 2020 over and over again, it won’t change the result in 2020, but we are sure to lose in 2024,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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