WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th January, 2022) The US government should distribute more coronavirus vaccines to poor countries around the world instead of administering booster shots to children in the United States, prominent US cardiologist and surgeon Dr. Bill Novick told Sputnik.
"The United States should send additional doses to low-income countries instead of boosting a very low risk group. You can potentially save millions of lives abroad," Novick said.
On Monday, the US food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had issued an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech's booster coronavirus vaccine for 12-15-year-old adolescents.
Novick, who leads the Bill Novick Cardiac Alliance and has operated on thousands of children around the world, called the FDA decision a "waste of doses" that could go to other countries where people do not have adequate vaccine coverage.
"Many prominent physicians in the United States also share this view," he said.
Novick emphasized that he does not advocate booster shots for children at all.
"If they go down to the 5 to 12-year-olds, I think that is complete lunacy to do boosters for kids that age," he said.
Novick noted that the coronavirus latest Omicron variant is highly transmissible, but the cases are mild and hospitalizations are significantly less than what was seen with the two previous variants. He also said the Biden administration is sending mixed signals to the public over the current situation, causing unnecessary fear in many people.
"To be clear, I am not saying that children in the United States should not be protected. But what I am saying is the risk for those kids is so low that they have already been fully vaccinated," he said.
Novick pointed out that a risk of myocarditis in adolescents who received the vaccine is low despite being more prevalent in this age group than in others.
"The risk of myocarditis in this group is extremely low," he said.
