CDC Closes Loophole That Kept Vaccine Trial Participants, Foreigners From Getting Boosters

Like many New Yorkers, I was eager to get a booster when the city opened up eligibility to everyone on November 15th. But to my shock and frustration, Bellevue Hospital denied me a shot the same day for a peculiar reason.

I was vaccinated in December 2020 as part of a clinical trial for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. More than two billion doses have been administered to people spread across 90 countries, but this particular medicine has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

Because of that, I fell into a group of thousands who’d either been vaccinated in clinical trials for products that were never authorized in the U.S., or who’d been vaccinated abroad and then moved here. Even elderly people or immunocompromised ones who’ve been eligible for boosters since  August have also been barred if their first shots are only offered overseas.

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