WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel on Thursday unanimously endorsed booster shots for some Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recipients, setting up millions of Americans to be eligible to get additional shots.
This move comes after the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday amended the vaccine makers’ emergency use authorizations to include booster shots. The FDA’s vaccine advisory committee already issued its booster recommendation for people who got vaccines from Moderna and J&J. CDC director Rochelle Walensky has accepted and signed off on the committee’s recommendations for administration of the shots to begin on Friday.
“These recommendations are another example of our fundamental commitment to protect as many people as possible from COVID-19. The evidence shows that all three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States are safe – as demonstrated by the over 400 million vaccine doses already given,” Walensky said in a statement Thursday.
Vaccines are recommended for:
• Moderna recipients aged 65 and older, people 18-64 at high risk of severe COVID-19 and people 18-64 who live or work in situations where they are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 six months after their second shot, which are the same groups authorized to get the Pfizer booster shot.
• J&J recipients who are 18 years old or older and at least two months out from their first dose.
The FDA also gave the okay for people to receive a different booster dose from their initial vaccine series. Panel members were in agreement that, depending on preference and availability, people could pursue the “mix-and-match” strategy. Early results from a recent study found that every combination of mixing and matching COVID-19 booster shots increased immune response without safety concerns.
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