The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet Friday to consider Pfizer’s application for COVID-19 vaccine boosters for fully-vaccinated Americans.
If it receives approval, the White House hopes to begin distributing boosters to healthy Americans by Sept. 20. A third dose is already available to those with severely compromised immune systems.
But the debate about when members of the public should receive a booster to provide more enduring protection against the coronavirus and prevent breakthrough infections has created some division among members of the scientific and medical community.
With confusion growing about a third shot, and the stakes extraordinarily high as the delta variant continues to surge, here are some pertinent questions about vaccine boosters:
Will the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approve a booster shot for fully-vaccinated Americans?
What’s the danger in distributing a third dose?
Does the FDA and CDC agree with this conclusion?
What about boosters to the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines?
Are boosters already available for some Americans?
