Professor Itamar Grotto, former Associate Director General of the Ministry of Health, was interviewed on Radio 103FM on Sunday and commented on the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to reject booster shot to Americans over the age of 16, while approving booster shots to people 65 and older, as well as for high risk individuals.
"The FDA has its own considerations and they are not always in line with what is happening here. We are not the 51st state in the United States yet, and we have our own autonomy, I hope. I strongly believe in the third vaccine dose, and if a fourth dose is necessary, we will do that as well. I have no doubt that this works. I am at peace with our decision to recommend a booster shot for everyone, but the question is when it comes to enforcing it - whether to use the green pass or advocacy. At this point it is worth holding another discussion on this," he said.
"The Israeli public has more trust in the FDA than the American public does," Prof. Grotto claimed, referring to the many concerns that arose among Israeli residents following the FDA announcement.
"We have our data that we trust, and the Americans do not yet have good data because they are lagging behind in all matters related to vaccines. Some experts have explained that they oppose the third vaccine dose in the United States, mainly because priority still needs to be given to the first dose. They conveyed to their leaders that more people should first be vaccinated with the first and second dose, before moving on to the third. There is a politics of medicine when it comes to these things," he stated.