FDA authorizes Pfizer booster shots for seniors and high-risk individuals

Pfizer vaccine doses.
(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized booster doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for Americans 65 and older and two other groups: younger people with underlying health conditions and those whose jobs put them at high risk of getting the virus.

Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must come up with its own recommendation on booster shots and when people should get them. A panel of CDC advisers convened on Wednesday to discuss the matter, and some suggested waiting a month and seeing what new evidence might come out about booster shots, The Associated Press reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.