CDC Panel Outlines Who Should Get Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Booster Shots, And Who Should Wait
for people 65 years or older, as well as anyone over 50 with certain underlying medical conditions. The committee also recommended allowing people 18- to 49-years-old with underlying medical conditions to receive a booster if they desired, based on individualized decisions about the benefits and risks to them.
It was up to the CDC committee that met today, however, to determine how that authorization should be translated to the eligible groups. While the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices often follows the recommendation of the FDA, it doesn’t have to—the CDC’s mandate, which focuses more on public health goals, differs slightly from that of the FDA’s, which is more centered around evaluating safety and efficacy.
The CDC committee then deviated from the FDA when it came to people like health care workers under age 65 whose jobs might put them at increased risk of exposure and infection, noting that there isn’t strong evidence to suggest that they, if they are vaccinated, are experiencing higher rates of severe disease. The data show that the currently approved two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech continue to provide good protection against COVID-19, especially against severe illness, hospitalization and death.
The CDC committee was instructed that its booster decision would only apply to those who had been inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to begin with, since the FDA only reviewed data on that population. Some committee members, however, argued that the decision should also apply to people who initially got Moderna or Johnson&Johnson-Janssen shots in order to be fair and equitable. Such mixing and matching of doses, however, isn’t supported by currently available data.
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