The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization on Thursday for immunocompromised people to receive a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Then on Friday, an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted to endorse the booster shot for immunocompromised people, meaning the additional vaccines are on the horizon.
Now that both agencies have given approval, the extra shots could start being administered immediately.
Here is what you need to know about who can and who cannot receive the approved COVID-19 booster shots, as well as when they are expected to become available to everyone.
People who have weakened immune systems are eligible to receive the booster shot, as are cancer patients, HIV patients and anyone who has had a solid organ transplant.
Patients will not need a doctor’s permission or prescription to receive the booster shots, according to a CDC official.
The FDA has not yet authorized booster shots for healthy people, mainly because scientists are still divided over the use and benefits of COVID-19 booster shots among those without underlying health conditions.
Pfizer has said the effectiveness of its vaccine has dropped over time, citing a study that showed 84% effectiveness, down from 96% effectiveness four months after the second dose.
Moderna has also announced the need for eventual boosters since the Delta variant has caused fully vaccinated people to suffer from breakthrough infections.
The FDA has not yet authorized a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because there is not enough data to support the authorization of additional doses of the vaccine, according to the CDC.
The CDC added that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met Friday, Aug. 13, 2021, to discuss recommending additional doses for this population of vaccine recipients.
The CDC also determined that there was not enough data to support the use of a booster shot after the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“Currently there are not data to support the use of an additional mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose after a primary Janssen Covid-19 vaccine in immunocompromised people. FDA and CDC are actively working to provide guidance on this issue,” the CDC’s Dr. Neela Goswami wrote in her presentation to ACIP.
A CNN report earlier this week said the Biden administration is expected to lay out a vaccine booster strategy for all vaccinated Americans in September.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a moratorium on booster shots until at least the end of September as the gap between vaccinations in rich and poor countries widens.
But people in the U.S. have resorted to getting booster shots anyway, even before the FDA authorized their use in immunocompromised people. According to reports by Reuters and The Washington Post, each of which cited the CDC, more than 1 million people already have received additional doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
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