CDC Director Bucks Advisory Panel, Promotes Vaccine Booster Shots for Frontline Workers

Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bucked the decision of her agency’s own advisory panel and is now recommending vaccine booster shots for frontline workers.

On Thursday, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended coronavirus booster shots for older adults and at-risk individuals. However, the federal health agency did not include frontline workers, prompting Walensky to override her own advisory committee.

In a statement released early Friday morning, the CDC formally announced that Walensky “endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation for a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in certain populations and also recommended a booster dose for those in high risk occupational and institutional settings.”