The Food and Drug Administration is preparing to revise its emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, allowing immunocompromised adults to get a third dose, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The announcement is expected to come on Thursday, the people said. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines involve two shots, but there is evidence that people who are immunocompromised may only develop low levels of antibodies after being vaccinated, if any at all. A recent study at Johns Hopkins University of organ transplant recipients, who take medicine to suppress their immune systems so their new organs aren't rejected, showed that a third vaccine dose increased their antibody levels.
In July, an advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said extra doses must be approved for immunocompromised adults, who make up about 2.7 percent of the U.S. population.