CDC Gives Thumbs Up to Moderna and J&J COVID-19 Boosters, and Mixing and Matching Vaccines

Moderna’s and Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 boosters, along with mixing and matching of shots, was greenlighted unanimously by scientific advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday, just after FDA approved the two boosters for limited populations.

After listening to two days of data, the CDC’s 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) agreed with the FDA, which on Wednesday granted an updated Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) allowing a Moderna booster to be given six months following completion of a two-dose primary series for those age 65 years and older, adults at high-risk of contracting severe COVID-19 and adults at high-risk of contracting the disease based on their workplace.

The CDC panel also signed off on the FDA’s updated EUA allowing a booster of the J&J shot in all adults two months following a single-dose regimen. And the CDC committee gave the thumbs up to mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines, allowing people who were fully immunized with one type to choose a different type for their booster.

Data from the National Institutes of Health has suggested that using different COVID-19 vaccines as boosters is safe and effective, which the FDA cited in its revised authorization for emergency use (DID, Oct. 20).

But CDC Director Rochelle Walensky must first give her stamp of approval on the new boosters for ACIP’s recommendations to become policy. After this step occurs, eligible members of the public will be free to sign up for a booster of their choice.

Also Thursday, Pfizer and BioNTech released the first efficacy results from any randomized, controlled COVID-19 vaccine booster trial, showing the high efficacy of a booster dose of their Covid-19 vaccine against the virus, including the Delta variant.

The trial of 10,000 participants age 16 or older showed 95.6 percent effectiveness against the disease during a period when the Delta strain was prevalent, said the companies. Half the subjects got a 30-µg booster dose, the same dosage strength as those in the primary series.

“Based on these findings we believe that, in addition to broad global access to vaccines for everyone, booster vaccinations could play an important role in sustaining pandemic containment and a return to normalcy,” said Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech. — Suz Redfearn