STAT: Covid-19 booster shot distribution chance to fix rollout flaws

News that Covid-19 booster shots are in America’s future has given rise to bad memories surrounding the initial rollout. UC College of Law professor Jennifer Bard says that President Biden’s decision that everyone be equally eligible for a booster shot eight months after the initial shot risks reproducing many of the flaws, challenges and problems that plagued the first rollout — leading to inequity in vaccine distribution.

Professor Jennifer Bard

Professor Jennifer Bard

In the editorial “Covid-19 booster shot distribution must learn from vaccine roll-out mistakes,” co-authored by Bard and Chloe Reichel, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and editor-in-chief of its Bill of Health blog, the two discuss the challenges of the initial vaccine rollout, strategies to avoid them moving forward, the importance of transparency about potential side effects, and the proactive steps that should be taken to address community concerns. Their solutions include creating an evidence-based framework for distributing booster shots, recoding vaccinations, providing ready access to vaccination records, and addressing adverse effects.

Read the entire article here.

STAT provides in-depth biotech, pharma, policy, and life science coverage and analysis.

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