CDC gives green light to Moderna, J&J boosters and mix-and-match strategy

The panel also approved boosters for all adults who received the J&J single injection vaccine at least two months after vaccination. And he agreed that those eligible for the booster can choose any type of booster they want, regardless of the vaccine they initially received: Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J.

Members of the CDC advisory board largely agreed that J&J beneficiaries need a second shot to boost their protection against Covid-19. Some have applauded the FDA’s clearance of mix-and-match boosters given concerns about rare but serious side effects associated with different vaccines: an inflammation of the heart known as myocarditis after the Pfizer or Moderna vaccination in young men, and a rare type of blood clot most commonly found in women 30 to 39 years old after receiving the J&J vaccine.

The United States is at a stage of the pandemic where policymakers may take longer to assess the benefits and risks of administering vaccines as more data emerges on the side effects specific to certain people. age groups and genders, said Keipp Talbot, associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University. Talbot and Pablo Sanchez, professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University, have expressed strong concerns about some of the risks associated with the J&J vaccine.

“I think the opportunities for these heterologous boosts are invaluable,” said Talbot.

Security Updates: One of the CDC’s vaccine monitoring programs, Vaccine Safety Datalink, identified the overall risk of myocarditis after the first round of vaccines as being higher for Moderna recipients than for people who received Pfizer. Corn both vaccines are linked to high rates of the disease.

The discovery places this system, a project between the agency and nine healthcare organizations across the country, on par with watchdogs from other countries who have established a similar link and limited the age range of citizens who can receive Moderna injections.

Committee members raised concerns with Moderna’s plan to allow vaccine suppliers to withdraw booster doses from the same vials used to procure full doses of the primary series, expressing concern over the sterility of the solution after multiple uses of vials and the ability to track the safety and effectiveness of the booster dose when it does not have a unique code.

New Pfizer booster data: Pfizer and BioNTech announced earlier Thursday that a controlled clinical booster trial showed that a third dose of their vaccine increased its effectiveness by up to 95.6%. But the median time from the second dose to the booster was around 11 months, well beyond the six-month mark currently allowed by the FDA and CDC.

The companies plan to submit the data, which was not made public in the announcement, to the FDA.