CDC advisers weigh more phased COVID-19 booster plan than White House

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisers anticipate booster doses could be needed to increase COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and prevent severe disease as the delta variant swarms the country, but in a Monday meeting, they did not endorse President Joe Biden’s plan to start offering boosters to a wide swath of consumers next month.

The Biden White House said earlier this month that beginning Sept. 20, booster shots would become available to all adults who were eight months past the date of their final vaccine. But that announcement was pending Food and Drug Administration and CDC advisers’ authorization. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices floated a more phased approach to boosters, starting with long-term health care residents and then essential front-line workers and older adults.

ACIP Chair Grace Lee said the committee would meet later to consider boosters for the rest of the general population but did not say when. A Pfizer-BioNTech representative told the working group the manufacturers would have data on their booster shots for all adults by the end of September at the earliest.