Inside the Feds’ Surprise Rejection of COVID Booster Shot
Now it’s up to the FDA to act, or not act, on the recommendation that only certain groups of Americans need a third shot.
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A key U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel on Friday afternoon voted against a universal booster shot for the most popular COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, the panel endorsed a booster only for certain Americans: those 65 and older plus younger people who are at high risk of disease owing to underlying conditions.
The votes by the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC, could narrow any effort by the health-safety agency to authorize a third shot for many of the 180 million (and counting) Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID.
The FDA isn’t required to honor VRBPAC’s recommendations, although it almost always does.
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