FDA Advisers Back COVID-19 Booster Shots for Johnson & Johnson Recipients
WASHINGTON (CBS NEWS) -- A day after a panel of the Food and Drug Administration's outside advisers voted to endorse the third doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, the committee voted unanimously Friday to back booster shots for the 15 million Americans with Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, at least two months after they were first vaccinated.
The meeting of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee came as new CDC data suggests infections and deaths among vaccinated Americans were worse in those who received Johnson & Johnson's COVID vaccine.
While the unvaccinated were still 6.1 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 and 11.3 times more likely to die from the disease compared to all fully vaccinated people, breakthrough cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated Americans have also climbed in recent months. Rates of cases and deaths among people who were vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson's dose were higher than in those who received two shots of vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna.
However, severe COVID-19 remains unlikely for most vaccinated younger adults. Hospitalizations in adults under 50 was just 1.8 per 100,000 fully vaccinated people, in the CDC's COVID-NET surveillance, compared to nearly 15 per 100,000 in seniors 65 and older.
