(CNN) — Vaccine advisers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted Thursday to recommend booster doses of Moderna and Johnson’s covid-19 vaccines. & Johnson.
CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices accepted emergency use authorizations from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for each vaccine.
Members generally agreed that people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine need a second vaccine, as that vaccine is less effective than Moderna and Pfizer in preventing infection.
It will now be up to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky to accept or modify the committee’s recommendation. The CDC will also issue a detailed clinical guide that specifies what people should consider when seeking and receiving booster shots. This will include whether people can mix and match vaccines.
The FDA granted emergency use authorization Wednesday for booster doses of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s / Janssen vaccines. The FDA also authorized a mix-and-match approach, saying that people could receive any vaccine as a booster, regardless of the vaccine they received for the initial immunization.
The FDA emergency use authorization covers Moderna recipients who were vaccinated at least six months or more ago, who are 65 years or older, or who are 18 years or older and are at high risk of severe coronavirus infection due to to a medical condition or due to working or living conditions (medical personnel, for example). This is the same as the existing emergency use authorization for the pfizer vaccine. The Janssen vaccine emergency use authorization is for anyone who has been vaccinated two months or more ago.
The committee modified its tentative recommendation to use the same language to cover Moderna and Pfizer vaccines together.
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