Pfizer Requests Emergency Use for Third Dose; CDC/News Responds

Please note that I'm not saying that Pfizer is right, just looking at the rationale being reported for why the CDC doesn't think we need it. The CDC has announced they don't think we need to have a third vaccination shot at 6 months because the severe illness and deaths are still mostly among those that aren't vaccinated. A couple things about this.

For one thing, the numbers being used to say that we don't need a booster shot right now is based on the percent of people being hospitalized and dying that are fully vaccinated. The vaccinations in the US started in December and really only started ramping up in January, so those that would even be appropriate for the third shot would only be 3.7% of the population. The other 44.5% of the population that is vaccinated (48.2% total) wouldn't be at the point of needing the third dose yet... that's 92% of those that are vaccinated that are not yet ready for a 6-month booster shot and so your super small percent of hospitalizations being from unvaccinated versus vaccinated would be expected.

For another, there's a separate question of whether the third dose would reduce the potential for spread (which would also reduce the potential for additional variants). The response, at least from the news, was to say that the cases where people had symptoms but they weren't severe didn't matter to the equation. So, now I'm trying to decide if I think it's because the CDC doesn't care about spread and increasing the chance of more dangerous variants coming up and is only concerned with people getting very sick or if they're just doing this because they're worried about getting people to get their initial 2 doses of the vaccine.... this is the perfect time for the "both" meme.