The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to authorize booster doses of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for all adults as early as Thursday, according to a report from The New York Times.
An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning to meet on Friday to discuss data on the booster shot.
However, if both the FDA and CDC greenlight boosters, it will be much more quickly than the original vaccines were authorized, with Pfizer submitting data just a week ago.
If authorization is given, the Pfizer booster will be the second to receive authorization for all American adults behind Johnson & Johnson's booster.
The FDA is planning to authorize Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine booster shot for all U.S. adults as early as Thursday. Pictured: Safeway pharmacist Shahrzad Khoobyari (left) administers a Pfizer COVID-19 booster into the arm of Norman Solomon (right) in San Rafael, California, October 2021
In late August, the White House announced plans to make the additional shots available on September 20, though the plan ran into a few speedbumps.
At the time, Pfizer said its early data suggested people who received booster doses between six and 12 months after their final dose had high levels of protection.
The documents suggest that protection from two doses of the Pfizer vaccine declines from 96.2 percent at seven days after dose 2 to 90.1 percent two months later to 83.7 percent up to six months later.
What's more, Pfizer cited data from Israel showing people fully vaccinated in January 2021 had a 2.26-fold increased risk for breakthrough infections compared to those fully vaccinated in April 2021.
However, on September
