The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize a second SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccine for adults 50 years old and older, according to the Washington Post.
Earlier this month, both Pfizer and BioNTech as well as Moderna asked FDA to authorize a second booster of their vaccines. Pfizer and BioNTech asked for authorization for one for people 65 years old or older or people who are immunocompromised, while Moderna is seeking authorization for a broader audience of all adults.
Officials tells the Post that authorization likely would come Tuesday following "lively but not antagonistic" debate, which was informed by data from a new Israeli study. That study, which was posted as a preprint to Research Square, found that adults 60 years old or older who received two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine boosters had a reduced risk of death during the Omicron wave than those who only had one booster. The Post adds that the shift in the likely US authorization to a lower age aims to address a health equity concern — the pandemic has disproportionately affected Black and Hispanic Americans — and aims to ensure broader access to boosters among those groups.