{"id":6715,"date":"2021-12-01T17:50:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T17:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=6715"},"modified":"2021-12-01T17:50:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T17:50:28","slug":"the-u-s-is-relying-on-other-countries-data-to-make-its-booster-shot-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=6715","title":{"rendered":"The U.S. Is Relying On Other Countries\u2019 Data To Make Its Booster Shot Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“Israeli presenters provided slide after slide showing the power of booster shots. But not all of the FDA advisors were convinced. \u201cWhat they\u2019re seeing in Israel is not necessarily what we\u2019re seeing here in the U.S.,\u201d said Dr. Archana Chatterjee<\/a>, dean of Chicago Medical School and member of the advisory committee, during the meeting. In an interview with FiveThirtyEight, she explained that Israel\u2019s data is \u201cinteresting and very compelling,\u201d but that Israel differs from the U.S. on key characteristics: Namely, a higher share of the Israeli population is inoculated, and a larger proportion of breakthrough cases in Israel led to hospitalization prior to the booster shot rollout. As a result, she said, Israel had a clear need for additional shots to bump up immunity. In the U.S., meanwhile, the vaccines were still highly protective against severe COVID-19 disease and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chatterjee said that her eventual votes \u2014 in favor of booster shots \u2014 were not based on data from Israel. Still, the Israeli scientists\u2019 very presence at the meeting demonstrated the shortcomings of the U.S. health system. If the U.S. doesn\u2019t comprehensively track its own data, it has to rely on other countries to tell it how to keep Americans safe. Meanwhile, without clear evidence that they can refer to in making their own COVID-19 decisions, many Americans have been confused about whether they are eligible for \u2014 or even need \u2014 a booster shot.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel has a universal health care system<\/a> for all citizens and permanent residents. So does the U.K., another country that the U.S. looks to for COVID-19 data. Beyond the health care benefits that such policies provide to residents, universal health care has a clear advantage for data scientists seeking to answer medical questions. When every person in the country is plugged into the same health care system, it\u2019s very easy to standardize your data.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the U.S., vaccine research is far more complicated. Rather than one singular, standardized system housing health care data, 50 different states have their own systems, along with hundreds of local health departments and thousands of hospitals. \u201cIn the U.S., everything is incredibly fragmented,\u201d said Zo\u00eb McLaren<\/a>, a health economist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. \u201cAnd so you get a very fragmented view of what\u2019s going on in the country.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Without a unified dataset allowing U.S. researchers to analyze how well the vaccines are working, policymakers are left with limited information to make crucial decisions, such as determining who should be first in line for a booster shot.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The U.S. Is Relying On Other Countries’ Data To Make Its Booster Shot Decisions<\/a><\/blockquote>