An expert panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccination policy informally endorsed a plan Wednesday to offer an additional Covid-19 booster shot to people 65 and older as well as people who are immunocompromised, and to simplify the Covid vaccine schedule.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was not asked to vote on the changes, announced Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. But in their discussions, the committee of outside experts appeared broadly supportive of the new guidance.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signed off on the changes later Wednesday. The action allows older adults who have gone more than four months since their last vaccine dose and immunocompromised people who have gone two months to get another dose of the bivalent messenger RNA vaccines made by either Moderna or the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership.