What’s Next With Booster Doses?
In the final chapter of the booster vaccine saga, an FDA advisory group voted this week to find Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster doses safe and effective. This means that they may be authorized soon, but a number of questions remain to be answered.
As a reminder, Pfizer boosters are already approved and recommended for people over 65 or other high-risk groups.
The Moderna and J&J boosters overcame their first hurdle this week thanks to an FDA advisory panel vote. The FDA will then likely update permits for these vaccines in emergencies to include boosters, and then the CDC will decide, with the help of its own vaccine advisory group, who should get the boosters and when.
There is still no official report on whether people will be able to mix and match different brands of vaccines. Pfizer’s approval was for Pfizer boosters for people who originally received Pfizer, but a new National Institutes of Health study looked at what happens when people who receive one of three vaccines get a booster vaccine with one of the others (so nine different combinations). The data is available as a preprint here .
Research has shown that in some cases, getting a different booster may be better than sticking to the same brand. People who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as the original vaccine appeared to have a stronger immune response to the Moderna booster than, for example, the J&J booster.
But the data has yet to undergo peer review, and any recommendations will depend on what the experts think about the nuances of the study. To name a few issues: the sample sizes are small, the study measured antibodies rather than other more complex immune response components, and the Moderna booster used in the study was a different dose than the approved Moderna booster.
So if you got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine, look forward to more information in the coming weeks on whether and what you should get vaccinated.