WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (U.S.): Federal health officials said millions of Americans could get a COVID-19 booster and choose a different company vaccine for that next shot.
Some people who received the Pfizer vaccines months ago are already eligible for a booster dose and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says certain Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recipients are eligible as well.
And in an even bigger change, the agency is allowing flexibility to “mix and match” that extra dose regardless of what type of people received first, the AP reports.
The Food and Drug Administration had already authorized such an expansion of the nation’s strengthening campaign on Wednesday, and it was also approved Thursday by an advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The director of the Center for Disease Control, Dr. Rochelle Walinsky, the last word on who gets the extra doses.
“The past 20 months have taught us many things, but mostly to be humble,” she told the committee. “We are constantly learning about this virus, growing the evidence base and collecting more data.”
There are still restrictions on who qualifies and when they need a booster dose. Starting six months after the last Pfizer or Moderna vaccination, people are urged to get a booster if they are 65 years of age or older, a nursing home resident, or at least 50 years old and at increased risk of severe disease due to Health problems.
The use of boosters has also been permitted, but not encouraged, in adults of any age at increased risk of injury due to health problems, their jobs, or their living conditions. This includes health care workers, teachers, and people in prisons or homeless shelters.
Moderna Booster will come at half the dose of the original 2 shots. For recipients of the J&J single-shot vaccine, a booster dose of COVID-19 is recommended for everyone at least two months after vaccination. That’s because the J&J vaccine hasn’t been shown to be as protective as two doses of Moderna or Pfizer.
The CDC didn’t explicitly recommend that anyone get a different brand than the one they started with, but it left the option open — only saying that a booster of some kind was recommended.
Some advisors said they would prefer J&J recipients to receive a competing booster, citing preliminary data from an ongoing government study indicating a greater increase in antiviral antibodies from the combination.
The vast majority of the nearly 190 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 have had Pfizer or Moderna options, while J&J recipients represent only about 15 million.
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