Two of the nation’s top doctors have refused to give their own kids a COVID-19 booster shot as vaccinated teenage boys have a low risk of hospitalization, but the likelihood of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, is higher.
Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California, and Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, told journalist David Zweig on January 27 that the benefits of a booster shot for teen males are outweighed by the risk of side effects.
Both Gandhi and Offit, who have advocated for the vaccine and gotten themselves and their children vaccinated, claimed the CDC was premature in advising teens to get a COVID-19 booster shot on January 5, with Gandhi saying, “I am not giving my 12 and 14-year-old boys boosters.”
Offit said he advised his 20-year-old son to avoid the third dose and said the booster shot would not be worth the risk for “the average healthy 17-year-old boy.”
The doctors’ statements come as other health officials claimed the CDC had made its booster recommendation without proper data on the safety issues.
