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 The move comes after an advisory panel to the agency on Thursday did
not recommend that people in high-risk jobs, such as teachers, and
risky living conditions should get boosters. The panel had
recommended boosters for elderly and some people with underlying
medical conditions.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said her agency had to make
recommendations based on complex, often imperfect data.
"In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we
anticipate will do the greatest good," she said in a statement.
"I believe we can best serve the nation’s public health needs by
providing booster doses for the elderly, those in long-term care
facilities, people with underlying medical conditions, and for
adults at high risk of disease from occupational and institutional
exposures to COVID-19. This aligns with the FDA’s booster
authorization and makes these groups eligible for a booster shot,"
she said.
The CDC recommendation follows U.S. Food and Drug Administration
authorization and clears the way for a booster rollout to begin as
soon as this week for millions of people who had their second dose
of the Pfizer shot at least six months ago.
The CDC said that people 65 years and older should get a booster.
Beyond older Americans, the CDC also recommended the shots for all
adults over 50 with underlying conditions.
It said that, based on individual benefits and risks, 18- to
49-year-olds with underlying medical conditions may get a booster,
and people 18-64 at increased risk of exposure and transmission due
to occupational or institutional setting may get a shot.
The recommendations only cover people who received their second
Pfizer/BioNTech shot at least six months earlier. The CDC said that
group is currently about 26 million people, including 13 million age
65 or older.
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Thursday
gave the thumbs down to additional doses for groups including
healthcare workers, teachers and residents of homeless shelters and
prisons.
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 Panel member Lynn Bahta, who works with the
Minnesota Department of Health, voted against
that measure. She said the data does not support
boosters in that group yet. "The science shows
that we have a really effective vaccine," she
said.
The committee had said it could revisit the
guidance later.
Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden and eight
top health officials said they hoped to start a
broad booster shot program this week, saying
that emerging data showed immunity wanes over
time.
Vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit said he believed
the CDC advisers were worried that recommending
boosters based on employment would allow overly
broad use, especially in younger people for whom
the health benefits of a booster shot are still
unclear.
"That was a hole that you could drive a truck
through, that essentially what we were doing was
basically what the (Biden) administration
initially asked - to just have a vaccine for the
general population, because obviously the
pharmacists aren't going to figure out whether
you're working in a grocery store or hospital,"
he said.
More than 180 million people in the United
States are fully vaccinated, or about 64% of the
eligible population.
Pfizer - and some top U.S. health officials like
Dr. Anthony Fauci - have argued that the extra
round of shots are needed to address waning
immunity. Fauci and others have also said they
could help contain surging hospitalizations and
deaths caused by the highly transmissible Delta
variant of the coronavirus by cutting
breakthrough infections of fully vaccinated
people.
Some countries, including Israel and the United
Kingdom, have already begun COVID-19 booster
campaigns. The United States authorized extra
shots for people with compromised immune systems
last month and around 2.3 million people have
already received a third shot, according to the
CDC.
 (Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru
and Michael Erman in New Jersey; Editing by Bill
Berkrot and Peter Henderson)
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