US CDC backs Pfizer-BioNTech Covid booster for 65, older
But the panel declined to recommend boosters for younger adults, including healthcare workers, who live or work in institutions with high risk of contracting Covid-19, which could narrow the scope of the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization issued on Wednesday.
The guidelines voted on by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices still need to be signed off on by agency Director Rochelle Walensky. The recommendations are not binding, and states and other jurisdictions could disregard them and use other approaches to administering the booster shots.
Still, the vote by the group, following the FDA’s authorization clears the way for a booster rollout to begin as soon as this week for millions of people who had their second dose of the Pfizer shot at least six months ago.
Beyond older Americans, the committee also recommended the shots for all adults over 50 with underlying conditions, as well as some 18- to 49-year-olds with those conditions, based on their individual risk profile. Those conditions include cancer, diabetes, certain heart conditions and chronic kidney disease and lung disorders.
The recommendations only cover people who received their second Pfizer/BioNTech shot at least six months earlier. The CDC said that group is currently about 26 million people, including 13 million age 65 or older.
The panel gave the thumbs down for now to additional doses for groups including healthcare workers, teachers and residents of homeless shelters and prisons, in part because of the difficulty of implementing such a proposal.
