All for a variant that people here claim will kill nobody?

CDC director confirms FDA in talks to streamline authorization of omicron-specific vaccine

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Sunday that the Food and Drug Administration was in discussions to streamline the authorization of an omicron-specific vaccine. “You know, one of the things about a booster - about a variant-specific booster - I know Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson say they can all do this fairly quickly within three months. But then you have FDA approval. Is there any world where you can see that moving much faster given we've already been through this?” “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz asked CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on ABC.

“Yeah, you know, much of that I would have to defer to the FDA, but they're already in conversations about streamlining the authorization of this, of an omicron-specific vaccine, partially because much of the vaccine is actually exactly the same and really, it would just be that mRNA code that would have to change,” Walensky answered. “So those conversations are ongoing, and certainly, FDA will move swiftly and CDC will move swiftly right thereafter,” she added.

Walensky’s comments follow a report by The Wall Street Journal last week that indicated the Food and Drug Administration was eyeing steps for a rapid review of drugs and vaccines specific to the omicron variant in the event that new variant-specific tools were needed.

Once again we appear to be getting excited not about how fast the FDA can streamline their process to get a vaccine fully approved, but rather how much of that process that the FDA is willing to bypass in order to provide full approval. Generally speaking a new vaccine or drug takes upwards of two years of testing before the FDA will look at full approval. There simply is not a manner to actually condense time to allow for us to know what side effects take months or even a couple of years to emerge. 

But there seems to be mixed messages here. The powers to be are both attempting to insist that there is not much danger associated with the new Omicron variant, while demanding that huge moves have to be made to address it? Not sure what to believe.