NO ONE wants the COVID19 Booster | CDC reports 3% Uptake | CDC and FDA have failed America
What this video covers
Recorded in October 2023, this video responds to CDC data showing that only about 3% of eligible Americans had taken the updated COVID-19 booster in the first weeks of the fall campaign. Prasad treats the low uptake not as a communications failure but as a verdict: in his telling, the public was rationally rejecting a recommendation that lacked evidence.
Prasad argues the CDC and FDA’s recommendation — that everyone over six months old receive the updated booster regardless of prior infection or vaccination history — was unsupported by randomized-trial data, particularly for young, healthy people. He contrasts the U.S. position with several European countries, which he says took a more restrained, age- and risk-stratified approach. According to Prasad, the agencies’ credibility had been eroded by pandemic-era errors, including masking policies and what he describes as misinformation and censorship around vaccine recommendations.
He illustrates with specifics: then-COVID coordinator Ashish Jha, on Good Morning America, said a 20-year-old who had already had COVID three times should get the booster — a statement Prasad calls deranged and close to malpractice. He notes that Paul Offit, 72, himself declined the fall booster, and that the 2021 resignations of Marion Gruber and Philip Krause were driven by concern over an annual-boosting policy with no evidence. On the risk side, he cites the Kaiser Permanente estimate of roughly 1 in 10,000 myocarditis in young men from a prior booster, arguing the risk to a healthy 20-year-old was likely orders of magnitude above any plausible COVID-hospitalization risk — a net harm. The video also includes his point-by-point rebuttal of a STAT piece listing seven or eight reasons to get the booster, written by a PhD scientist whom he criticizes for recommending a medical product without ever having prescribed one. He predicts uptake would top out around 7–8% — and treats even that as the public voting with its feet. The chronicle notes the broader context: later CDC reporting confirmed low booster uptake (under 25% across the 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons), though public-health researchers attributed it to a mix of pandemic fatigue, access, and messaging — not solely to the recommendation’s scientific merits, as Prasad implies.
Key points
- Prasad cites CDC data showing ~3% uptake of the updated 2023 COVID booster and treats the low figure as public rejection of the recommendation.
- He argues the recommendation — boosters for everyone over six months old regardless of prior infection — lacked randomized-trial evidence, especially for young, healthy people.
- According to Prasad, European governments did not match the U.S. approach, which he says favored a more restrained, risk-based strategy.
- Prasad criticizes then-CDC Director Mandy Cohen and FDA’s Peter Marks, arguing public-health decisions had become politically driven rather than evidence-based.
- He cites then-COVID coordinator Ashish Jha’s Good Morning America statement that a 20-year-old who had COVID three times should get the booster, which he calls close to malpractice.
- He notes Paul Offit, then 72, himself declined the fall booster, and that Gruber and Krause’s 2021 resignations were driven by concern over an evidence-free annual-boosting policy.
- He cites the Kaiser estimate of roughly 1 in 10,000 booster myocarditis in young men, arguing it implied net harm for a healthy 20-year-old, and includes a point-by-point rebuttal of a STAT piece listing reasons to get boosted.
- He argues the agencies’ credibility was damaged by pandemic-era policies and what he calls misinformation around vaccine recommendations.
- The chronicle notes that later CDC data did confirm persistently low booster uptake, though researchers cite pandemic fatigue and access as contributing factors alongside trust in the recommendation itself.