Maryland Governor: ‘Mixed’ Messages From Biden Admin Undermines Credibility of Vaccine Boosters

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan talks to reporters during a news briefing in front of the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Md., on April 17, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says that a lack of clear guidance from the Biden administration could undermine its effort to have Americans receive COVID-19 vaccine booster shots.

During a Sept. 5 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Hogan was asked to “give some advice” to President Joe Biden’s pandemic response team on the issue of extra doses of vaccine against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Specifically, he was asked about how the team should talk to “Trump folks,” or supporters of former President Donald Trump, many of whom are skeptical about the vaccine and unlikely to receive the booster shot.

“I don’t think it’s just about the Trump folks,” Hogan said, noting that he’s being as critical toward the Biden administration over the handling of the pandemic as he has been toward the Trump administration.

“I mean, we’re getting some mixed messaging out of the administration, out of the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], the FDA [Food and Drug Administration], and the White House. And, you know, we need clear guidance on these booster shots because it undermines the credibility of it.”

Hogan noted that there are people who are confused about who should get which COVID-19 booster shot due to mixed messages from health officials and the White House. The Biden administration had initially said that those who had received both doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine could receive their third dose as early as the week of Sept. 20. Last week, however, heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration reportedly told the White House that they may be able to only recommend boosters for some of the recipients of the Pfizer vaccine.

“I guess they slipped and pre-leaked an announcement about booster shots with all three vaccines and then had to backtrack it and say you can only use Pfizer,” Hogan said. “What about the people that took J&J [the Johnson & Johnson vaccine]? What about the people that took Moderna? They haven’t messaged properly about how to take care of these breakthrough infections.”

Hogan’s comments come after Trump said he will “probably not” get a COVID-19 booster shot. Trump contracted the CCP virus in October 2020 and briefly left the White House for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he quickly recovered from mild COVID-19 symptoms.

“I feel like I’m in good shape from that standpoint—I probably won’t,” Trump, who received a vaccination before leaving the White House this year, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “I'll look at stuff later on. I’m not against it, but it’s probably not for me.”