I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Thursday, August 19th.

Is it necessary to get a booster shot? For some people, probably yes, but experts disagree on for whom? Is it moral to get a booster

shot or is it even the right strategy for ending the pandemic when most of the world hasn't gotten one

shot? Experts disagree. Is it moral not to get vaccinated at all when other people's lives depend on it. There's not much disagreement on

that. With us now on President Biden's new booster recommendations to answer your questions on the phones

and to discuss other COVID news as the delta variant surges and the lambda variant looms is Dr. Georges

Benjamin. He's president of the American Public Health Association.

Dr. Benjamin, we really appreciate you coming on with us. Welcome to WNYC.

Hey, Brian. How you doing? I just want to make one correction. I'm the executive director.

Executive director. Sorry about that. I always get those two positions mixed up. Let's start with some basics. The president is recommending booster shots for all Americans vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna. We'll get to the Johnson and Johnson. But for now, the Pfizer or Moderna eight months after their second shot. Can you describe the science that's based on?

Absolutely. So let me just make sure that people understand. This was a heads-up announcement. And what I mean by that, it tells everyone that we are there proceeding down the line to get boosters.

As you know, we've been talking for really not just weeks, but a few months about whether or not we were getting a booster. That's been the

talk show question of the moment. And they've answered it. They've said, yep, there's a group of

people that definitely need to get the booster because we know that because of the status of their

immune system, they did not get enough of a response. So we need to get a third shot, and that they're anticipating that

the rest of us will need one.

And the evidence that they're using for that is that they've been tracking people since

they've begun vaccinating people, and they've noticed a steady decline in the blood tests

that they've been following, coupled with real world experience in places like Israel, which is highly vaccinated, where they've had significant breakout, even amongst people who are vaccinated and some outbreaks.

And they want to get ahead of that process.

And so they're alerting us that boosters are in our

future for that very reason. What about people vaccinated with the Johnson and Johnson, which is not

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