The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to announce within the next 48 hours that it is authorizing COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for some people who are immunocompromised, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing a source familiar with the discussions.
This would be a third shot of the current two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. That announcement could slide, the source cautioned, but this is the current timing.
“The FDA is closely monitoring data as it becomes available from studies administering an additional dose of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines to immunocompromised individuals,” an FDA spokesperson told CNN. “The agency, along with the CDC, is evaluating potential options on this issue, and will share information in the near future.”
The FDA must give authorization for the vaccines to be used in new ways outside the existing authorization. All three COVID-19 vaccines being used in the US are given under emergency use authorization by the FDA, but full approval is pending for Pfizer’s vaccine.
After FDA grants approval or authorization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention then advises on whether to actually use a vaccine as authorized by the FDA.
A recent study by Johns Hopkins researchers found that vaccinated immunocompromised people are 485 times more likely to end up in the hospital or die from COVID-19 compared to the general population that is vaccinated.
Pfizer recently announced plans to ask US regulators to authorize a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine within the next month.
Earlier this week, chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said that it is highly likely that people will need booster shots to give them protection from the coronavirus.
Fauci added that people with compromised immune systems in particular will likely never have a strong immune response, and that the vaccine protection has been shown to attenuate over time.
Israel recently launched a mass vaccination campaign promoting a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine, becoming the first country in the world to offer a third dose of the COVID vaccine, with the government urging Israelis over the age of 60 to receive a third jab to combat the spread of the delta variant.
Britain will also offer booster vaccines against COVID-19 to 32 million citizens starting early next month with up to 2,000 pharmacies set to deliver the program.
Germany has also announced it will start offering COVID-19 booster shots as of September.