FDA panel endorses coronavirus boosters for older adults and those at risk of serious disease

In an all-day FDA advisory meeting, experts unanimously recommended a coronavirus vaccine booster be authorized for people 65 and older and those at high risk of severe disease. The panel earlier resoundingly voted against approving Pfizer’s application for a broader approval of boosters for everyone 16 and older.

Expert advisers to the Food and Drug Administration are meeting Friday on the increasingly contentious issue of coronavirus vaccine boosters, the first phase of what could be a multiday effort to come up with government policy on who should get the extra shots and when.

The FDA’s vaccine advisory committee will vote at the end of the day on whether the agency should clear a third dose of the shot by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech for the public. The companies want the agency to approve boosters for people at least 16 years old who finished their immunizations six months earlier.