The COVID-19 booster will be available for free at pharmacies in the coming months, particularly for those who are immunocompromised or elderly. | Courtesy of collegepharmacy.wordpress.com
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Bree Gonzales | Sep 6, 2021

COVID-19 booster announcement allows to states and pharmacies ability to ‘stay ahead of the virus’

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients assured reporters that the Biden administration’s view on COVID-19 vaccine booster shots is backed by experts.

Amid the issue, two U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) senior scientists have announced their plans to leave the agency.

Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research & Review, will leave at the end of October. Phil Krause, the office's deputy director, will leave in November, according to an FDA spokeswoman. The federal government is considering offering booster shots beginning later this month.

"That decision was made by and announced by the nation's leading public health officials," Zients said, according to The Hill.

Zients also said that that the announcement was made "to stay ahead of the virus" and to allow states and pharmacies time to plan. He made his remarks during a press conference when asked whether he thinks the scientists' exits would undermine trust in FDA.

Gruber has been with the FDA for more than three decades, Krause for more than ten years. Both of them helped review the COVID-19 vaccines. The announcement of their intent to retire “comes amid fierce debate and criticism over whether the Biden administration is jumping ahead of the scientific review process in announcing boosters,” The Hill reported.

The FDA is also weighing the evidence for coronavirus vaccine booster doses, as well as first doses for children under 12.

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