FDA to allow booster mixing amid more COVID-19 vaccine requirements

According to an American health official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to allow the mixing and matching of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses later this week. The AP said the official was familiar with the matter.

According to them, the FDA is expected to say it still prefers people receive the same brand for a booster shot that they received for their initial vaccination. This is especially the case for the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. The agency is still finalizing guidance for the single-shot J&J vaccine.

Preliminary results from a government study on mixing and matching booster doses found an extra dose of any of the vaccines increase antibodies regardless of the brand people first received. One thing the FDA must sort out is what to do with the Moderna booster. The company applied for its booster to be half the original dose, saying that’s plenty for people who already received two full-strength shots. However, the study on mixing and matching booster doses used full-strength extra doses. This means there’s no way to know if a half-dose Moderna booster would trigger as strong a reaction in Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson recipients.

More vaccine requirements went into effect Monday. Those mandates affect state workers in Oregon and city workers in Seattle.

In Oregon, the deadline for about 5,000 employees was Monday and Tuesday. The deadline was originally for 43,000 executive branch employees. However, after union negotiations, the deadline for most was moved to Nov. 30.

On Monday night, a federal judge denied a last-minute bid by more than three dozen state employees, health care providers and school staff to temporarily stop the mandate.

“In the middle of a global pandemic while infections and hospitalizations continue at high rates, Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed in showing that their individual interests in remaining unvaccinated outweigh the State’s interest in public health and welfare,” the judge wrote in a 55-page opinion.

Meanwhile in Seattle, all city employees had to be vaccinated by 12:01. a.m. Tuesday. According to a Seattle Times report, 94 percent of the city’s 11,000 employees had been vaccinated as of Monday morning. 5 percent had filed paperwork for an exemption, and only about 1 percent had not yet complied.