US CDC panel recommends Pfizer booster shots for certain adult Americans

An advisory panel to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for millions of Americans who are 65 and older, nursing home residents, and people who are 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions.

The government advisers also said boosters can be offered to people 18 to 49 with underlying conditions. The shots would be given at least six months after the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

However, the advisers voted against recommending a booster dose for people whose jobs or situations put them at high risk of breakthrough infections.

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The members of CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met on Thursday to decide who they should be recommended to. The advisers voted unanimously to recommend a single Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine booster to people 65 years or older and long-term care facility residents at least six months after they were fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the advisers voted 13-2 to endorse giving booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to people ages 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions.  

All three of the COVID-19 vaccines used in the US still are highly protective against severe illness, hospitalization and death, even amid the spread of the extra-contagious delta variant. But only about 182 million Americans are fully vaccinated, just 55% of the population.

“We can give boosters to people, but that’s not really the answer to this pandemic,” said Dr Helen Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University. “Hospitals are full because people are not vaccinated. We are declining care to people who deserve care because we are full of unvaccinated COVID-positive patients.”

The decision comes after the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorised the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine booster shot for “certain populations”, which includes people who are at a high risk of getting severe COVID-19 symptoms and those above the age of 65.  

However, the priority still is vaccinating the unvaccinated ‘here in America and around the world,’ CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky told the meeting.