The White House is being advised by some regulators to scale back plans to roll out COVID-19 booster shots this month.
Leadership from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told White House officials they would need more time to review data before they could make a decision, reports the Washington Post.
The White House announced plans to make boosters available starting on September 20 - less than three weeks from now - last month.
The announcement was made pending approval from regulators, though, and this could prove to be a speed bump to the Biden Administration's plans.
Dr Rochelle Walensky (left) and Dr Janet Woodcook (right) told While House officials during a meeting Thursday that they may not be prepared to fully green light vaccine booster shots by September 20
Dr Janet Woodcock, commissioner of the FDA, and Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, met with White House Pandemic Coordinator Jeffrey Zients on Thursday.
They told Zients that they would be unable to make an informed decision in time to meet the targeted roll out date.
With the information they had, Woodcock and Walensky said they could only partially make a recommendation for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and not make any recommendation for the Moderna jab yet.
Moderna did not submit data on the booster shots to regulators until Wednesday, just 19 days before the third shot was supposed to become available.
Pfizer and BioNTech were slightly ahead of their peer, submitting data on August 16.
'We always said we would follow the science, and this is all part of a process that is now underway,' a White House spokesman told the Post about the report on Friday.
Last month, the White House, together with the FDA and CDC, announced it would make booster shots available for Americans who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
Jeffrey Zients (pictured) said that all available data in regards to booster shots is being reviewed
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