10 things you need to know today: October 16, 2021

FDA panel recommends Johnson & Johnson booster shot, a British lawmaker is fatally stabbed, and more

Murdered UK lawmaker David Amess remembered
(Image credit: Daniel Sorabji/AFP/Getty Images)

1. FDA panel recommends authorizing Johnson & Johnson's booster

A panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers on Friday recommended emergency use of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus booster shot to increase protection for people who have already received the single-dose vaccine. The outside experts said people should get the second dose at least two months after the first one. The panel's decision isn't binding, but the FDA usually accepts its advice. A top FDA official, Dr. Peter Marks, said regulators also might let people who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine get a booster made by Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech, although he gave no target date for that decision. Some experts on the panel said it might have been a mistake to approve the Johnson & Johnson shot as a single dose. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines come in two doses.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.