CDC panel recommends Pfizer's updated COVID-19 boosters for ages 12 and older
PHILADELPHIA (CBS/AP) -- A panel of U.S. health advisers voted to recommend Pfizer's updated COVID-19 boosters that target the newest omicron strains for people 12 and older. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to adopt the recommendation, the last step before shots can begin.
The panel will next vote on rival Moderna's version of the booster update, to be used in adults only
The FDA cleared the new formulation on Wednesday.
The committee and head of the CDC are expected to clear the new formulation. the hope is that they will be effective at preventing a predicted winter surge.
The newly formulated COVID-19 booster shots are targeted at the COVID-19 virus that's currently circulating, aiming to provide better protection.
It's a bivalent vaccine, meaning it contains some of the original COVID-19 virus, along with elements of the new Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants.
"The FDA has experienced evaluating strain changes and is confident in the data supporting the latest authorizations," FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said.
Moderna's booster is for Americans 18 and older. Pfizer's booster is for ages 12 and older. People could get either booster just two months after receiving their last shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.
"I'm on the FDA vaccine advisory committee, I did vote no," Dr. Paul Offit said.
Offit, a vaccine expert from Philadelphia, was on the losing side of the committee vote. The FDA did what he feared -- authorized the new booster formulations without waiting for results from human clinical trials.
"We're still waiting for data in people, right now, the only data that has been generated supposedly has been in mice, which is not adequate," Offit said.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky spoke about the boosters.
"There's always a question here of being too slow or too fast and I think one of the challenges is if we wait for those data in human data, not just mice data, in human data we will be using what I would be considered to be a very outdated vaccine," Walensky said.
Beyond the booster debate, experts do agree that people who are currently fully vaccinated have a good level of protection, but only half of eligible Americans have received their first booster. The new booster would be aimed mainly at high-risk groups.
If cleared by the CDC, the newly formulated COVID-19 booster shots could be available next week. The FDA says you can get them at the same time as your annual flu shot.