F.D.A. Authorizes Pfizer Booster Shots for Older and At-Risk Americans
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — After weeks of internal strife at the Food and Drug Administration, the agency on Wednesday authorized people over 65 who had received Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine to get a booster shot at least six months after their second injection. The F.D.A. also authorized booster shots for adult Pfizer-BioNTech recipients who are at high risk of becoming severely ill with Covid-19 or are at risk of serious complications from the disease due to frequent exposure to the coronavirus at their jobs.
The authorization sets up what is likely to be a staggered campaign to deliver the shots, starting with the most vulnerable Americans. It opens the way for possibly tens of millions of vaccinated people to receive boosters at pharmacies, health clinics, doctors’ offices and elsewhere. Roughly 22 million Americans are at least six months past their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of them are 65 and older. Millions of Americans who received the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are still waiting to learn whether they, too, can get boosters.
The F.D.A.’s decision will be followed as soon as Thursday by a recommendation from the C.D.C., which issues guidance on vaccine policy for clinicians and public health officials throughout the United States. An advisory committee of the C.D.C. is now in the midst of a two-day meeting on the issue. But even if the C.D.C. takes a different stance, health care providers are now authorized to offer third shots to Pfizer-BioNTech recipients who meet the F.D.A.’s eligibility criteria.
The ruling followed weeks of internal disagreement at the F.D.A., where some vaccine regulators openly challenged the idea of offering booster shots to the general population. Public health experts and state officials have criticized what they said were confusing public messages from the Biden administration about who should be eligible for a booster shot and when.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/us/politics/pfizer-boosters-fda-authorize.html
This is the follow-on to the VRBPAC approval last week. CDC's ACIP met today to look at some of the data and ask questions and have a follow up meeting tomorrow to get public comments as well, with an agenda that will take into consideration this final FDA approval.
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Ty!
Still gotta wait for CDC's final take.
They have another meeting tomorrow where their Committee might vote on whether to recommend approval and then it goes to the CDC leadership for the final yay or nay! 
Israel is planning for 4th boosters. 😏
I'll sure be glad to get mine! 
I think I would've stroked out if mine had been more than 3 weeks apart. 
I was counting days till I could get 2nd shot.
That was definitely discussed (i.e., the medical staff and other first responders) in today's meeting. I streamed it and watched it all day, literally "gavel to gavel" from 10 am EDT - 5 pm EDT (where it was running about 1/2 hour late). They noted that this group had always been at the front of the priority list during the initial vaccine rollout.
