Tracking the FDA advisory panel meeting on Moderna’s Covid vaccine booster

With people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine already in the process of getting booster shots, attention is shifting this week to what to do with people who received one of the two other vaccines in use in the U.S., the two-dose Moderna vaccine and the one-shot Johnson & Johnson product. Members of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine expert panel, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), are meeting today to discuss Moderna’s application for a booster shot for its product and again Friday to discuss the J&J application. The Biden administration has made it clear that it wants to boost all Americans who have been vaccinated, suggesting they should receive an additional jab six months or later after the last dose in their original vaccine regimen. Though the World Health Organization has asked wealthy countries to hold off on using boosters to make more vaccine available to low-income countries, and some experts have argued most people don’t currently need boosters, the administration has been unswerving on this policy.