Chris Wallace Confronts NIH Chief Francis Collins on Biden Booster Plan: Isn’t it the ‘Exact Opposite’ of ‘Follow the Science?’

Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace has been vocal in his belief that President Joe Biden did not follow the science — as he pledged he would — by coming out with a plan for Covid vaccine booster shots ahead of regulators like the FDA. But a top U.S. health official does not agree.

On this Sunday’s edition of his weekly program, Wallace debated NIH director Francis Collins about the Biden booster plan in the wake of the FDA’s overwhelming vote against it. Despite that resounding rejection, Collins argued there is not as much daylight as is being portrayed between Biden’s current position on boosters, and that of the FDA advisory panel which voted down his plan 16-2.

“They did encourage, and vote for, the administration of boosters to people over 65, and those at high risk of exposure,” Collins said. “Those are the people who would be most likely to reach that eight-month period [since their initial vaccination] — because that’s how we prioritized initial immunizations back in January. So I don’t think there’s huge differences here.”

Still, to Wallace, the FDA’s rebuke served as a signal that the president had gotten out in front of the experts — something that he pledged not to do.

“Back during the campaign, he talked a lot about ‘follow the science,'” Wallace said. “Isn’t announcing a specific date, and a specific plan, for the general population before any of the regulators — the FDA, the CDC — have approved it, isn’t that the exact opposite of ‘follow the science?'”

Collins denied that being the case.

“He was basically responding to a statement made by eight physician scientists including me, including the head of the FDA, and the head of the CDC saying we had looked at the data, and it looked as if boosters were going to be a good thing for Americans to start to utilize,” Collins said. “Recognizing in that speech, he did say CDC and FDA’s advisory process has to kick in first.

“I guess I’m a little troubled, Chris, about all of the buzz that’s happening right now about whether the process was perfect. Of course it’s not perfect. Bo process ever is. But have we lost track of the goals? The goals here are to try to protect Americans from dying from this disease — 670,000 have already. It does look, from review of the data, by people by myself, that we are going to need to provide boosters for people at risk in order to keep this surge from beginning to affect even those who are fully vaccinated. We’re trying to do the right thing, trying to look at the data as it evolves, recognize things are changing day by day. Maybe we ought to be talking more about that than whether the president said this a month ago, and FDA said this on Friday. Let’s try to get the science right, and do it transparently and openly so everybody sees what the process looks like.”

Watch above, via Fox.