COVID-19

All vaccinated adults could soon be eligible for a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot

A health care worker fills a syringe with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
A health care worker fills a syringe with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Lynne Sladky | AP

People 18 or older who are already considered fully vaccinated could soon be eligible to get a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster shot. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce later this week that it will grant emergency use authorization for all adults to get the Pfizer booster shot.

In September Pfizer was authorized to provide booster shots to anyone 65 or older. It also authorized boosters for people 18 and over who had some reason to believe they were at risk for severe disease, either because of their job or because of some health condition.

Earlier this month Pfizer indicated that it was seeking to expand that authorization to everyone 18 and older, based on data from a clinical trial showing that a booster improved vaccine efficacy for all adults. FDA appears to be convinced by the company's data that a booster should be valuable for all adults.

In Minnesota, cases and hospitalizations are surging. The state’s concerned enough about the current situation that officials intend to move ahead this week to offer vaccine booster shots to any eligible Minnesotan who wants one, Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm told reporters Tuesday.

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