The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has approved booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccines of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson brands, including taking different shots for the booster compared to the initial inoculation.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky gave her final approval late Thursday after an advisory panel unanimously endorsed the boosters, marking the final step before the vaccine boosters are made available to the public.
More than 65 million Americans remain unvaccinated.
For those who received their second dose of Moderna’s vaccine at least six months earlier, ACIP recommended a third shot for those age 65 and over, as well as some individuals at risk of severe illness and those at high risk of exposure to the virus through their jobs. The Moderna booster dose will be 50mg, which is half the strength used for the first two shots.
Some committee members questioned whether young, otherwise healthy adults whose only eligibility was their job should get a booster dose.
“I just feel that we’re abdicating our responsibility, not only to allow people to be immunized if they should be immunized, but to protect them from immunizations that they do not need that have adverse events,” said committee member Dr. Sarah Long.
“I can’t say I am comfortable that anyone under 50, otherwise healthy, needs a booster at this time,” she added.
“I echo Dr. Long’s feeling that there are probably many people who are going to get a Moderna booster who don’t need it,” Dr. James Loehr, another committee member, said. “However, given the situation that we’ve already approved of Pfizer and there are enough people who are looking for a booster, I’m inclined reluctantly, to just go ahead and recommend a similar pattern for the Moderna booster. I have much stronger feelings in favor of the Janssen [J&J] booster.”
One advantage in choosing a different booster dose is if someone may be at risk for a rare side effect from a specific vaccine, ACIP member Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot said.
Ultimately, people as young as 18 who have certain jobs or living situations could get a Pfizer-BioNTech booster, despite concerns from some experts that there was not enough data to support boosters for many younger people.