CDC panel recommends Pfizer booster for some people – CNET [CNET]

An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Thursday to recommend booster doses for recipients of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine who are 65 and older and those who live in long-term care facilities, at least six months after their second dose. The committee also voted to recommend Pfizer boosters for people ages 18 to 64 with underlying medical conditions. 

For younger people age 18-49, the booster recommendation came with a qualification that younger adults should consider their personal risk-benefit profile for a booster vaccine. 

Like all three coronavirus vaccines available in the US, Pfizer’s booster will be free. Booster shots for people who are fully vaccinated with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson aren’t authorized yet. 

Third doses of mRNA vaccines have been recommended for moderately or severely immunocompromised individuals who received Moderna or Pfizer since August. 

Before a CDC recommendation becomes official, the panel’s decision needs to be approved by CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and the US Department of Health and Human Services. But it’s expected that the committee’s recommendation will be accepted. 

The FDA gave emergency use authorization for a booster dose of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine Wednesday for people who are 65 and older, 18 and older who are at risk of severe COVID-19, and those with “frequent institutional or occupational exposure,” at least six months after their second shot. The authorization, which is not full approval like that given to Pfizer for the first two doses of its vaccine, came after a lengthy debate by an FDA committee that rejected booster doses for the general population. The FDA panel cited a lack of data of the benefits of a booster for most people, where Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines remain protective against severe disease caused by COVID-19.

At the CDC committee meeting, members reiterated the importance of vaccinating the unvaccinated as the top goal of the pandemic. In a presentation shared by a committee member, a poll found that a third of unvaccinated people said that COVID-19 boosters would make them less likely to get vaccinated at all. 

Unvaccinated people are about 10 times more likely to get hospitalized with COVID-19 and 10 times more likely to die from the disease than fully vaccinated people, recent data shared by the CDC found.