COVID vaccine: CDC expands booster rollout, OKs mixing shots

COVID vaccine: CDC expands booster rollout, OKs mixing shots

FILE - In this July 30, 2021, file photo, Bradley Sharp, of Saratoga, N.Y., gets the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from registered nurse Stephanie Wagner in New York. Starting Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration convenes its independent advisers for the first stage in the process of deciding whether extra shots of Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines should be dispensed and, if so, who should get them and when. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials say millions more Americans can get a COVID-19 booster and choose a different vaccine for that next shot. Certain people who received Pfizer vaccinations months ago already are eligible for a booster. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday said specific Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recipients should qualify, too. And in a bigger change, the agency is allowing the flexibility of “mixing and matching” that extra dose. The Food and Drug Administration had already authorized such an expansion of the nation’s booster campaign on Wednesday, and it was also endorsed Thursday by a CDC advisory panel.

Photo: FILE – In this July 30, 2021, file photo, Bradley Sharp, of Saratoga, N.Y., gets the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from registered nurse Stephanie Wagner in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)