INDIANA – The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized boosters of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for all adults, the companies said.
The agency expanded emergency use authorization for booster doses of both the mRNA vaccines beyond who was eligible previously; boosters had been authorized for anyone 65 and older who was vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines at least six months ago and for certain adults at high risk of infection or of severe disease.
Pfizer and BioNTech requested authorization last week based on results of a Phase 3 trial involving more than 10,000 participants; it found boosters were safe and had an efficacy of 95% against symptomatic Covid-19 compared with the two-dose vaccine schedule in the period when the highly transmissible Delta was the dominant strain. Pfizer released the booster efficacy data last month; it has not yet been peer-reviewed or published.
Moderna requested authorization of its 50-microgram booster dose for all adults on Wednesday.
Recent studies suggested that immunity from Covid-19 vaccines may begin to wane and protection against milder and asymptomatic disease, in particular, may drop. Studies have shown that booster doses restore that immunity.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN that recent data from Israel show that, among people age 60 and older, those who received a booster were less likely to become severely ill than vaccinated people who had not received a booster. Rates of severe disease remained highest among those who weren’t vaccinated.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee will meet Friday to discuss expanding booster eligibility. Boosters could officially be administered to all adults after CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signs off on a recommendation.
However, the majority of adults are already eligible to receive boosters, and several states have officially opened up boosters to all adults already.
More than 32 million people in the United States – about 16% of those who are fully vaccinated – have received a booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to CDC data.
