CDC Advisers Set Meeting for Next Week on Covid Booster Shots

(Bloomberg) -- Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will hold a two-day meeting next week to discuss booster shots for Covid-19 vaccines.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices posted notice of the meeting, which will be held Sept. 22-23, on its website on Wednesday. The panel of outside experts advises the CDC on how best to administer new vaccines.

The Biden administration had laid out plans last month to begin giving booster shots to more Americans on Sept. 20, but the timing of the advisory panel’s meeting is likely to mean that effort will be delayed by at least a few days. Booster shots are available on an emergency basis for certain people with compromised immune systems.

A separate group of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration is set to deliberate Friday on an application from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE for a third-dose booster shot for the companies’ Covid vaccine, currently given in two doses.

No agenda for the meeting was posted, and it wasn’t clear whether ACIP would focus on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or discuss booster shots more broadly. Moderna Inc. is also seeking FDA authorization for a booster dose for its Covid shot.

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