The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to host a virtual meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on September 17 to discuss whether the agency should authorize booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech for people 16 years of age and older.
However, the date of the meeting is just three days before the Biden Administration wants to begin allowing booster shots of mRNA vaccines for everybody. People will become eligible for the shot 8 months after their second dose of one of the mRNA vaccines, meaning that those who were vaccinated earlier in the process, such as senior citizens and healthcare workers, will qualify first.
In addition to the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, another mRNA vaccine is available from Moderna.
The FDA said it plans to make background material for the meeting available to the public, including the meeting agenda and committee roster, no later than two business days before the meeting.
The plan to offer the booster doses is dependent on the FDA approving a third dose of both vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) would then need to recommend the third dose.
