CDC recommends FDA-approved Moderna Covid-19 vaccine for adults

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky endorsed a recommendation from the CDC’s vaccine advisers Friday for use of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine for adults.

“We now have another fully approved COVID-19 vaccine,” Walensky said in a statement. “If you have been waiting for approval before getting vaccinated, now is the time to join the nearly 212 million Americans who have already completed their primary series. CDC continues to recommend that people remain up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines, including getting a booster shot when eligible.”

Earlier in the day, the CDC’s vaccine advisers voted 13-0 to recommend the two-dose Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, which received full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration this week.

Before it was approved by the FDA, the vaccine was available under emergency use authorization and had been recommended on an interim basis.

A medical technician fills a syringe from a vial of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Bates Memorial Baptist Church February 12, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky.

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The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices endorsed the vaccine after hearing details about Moderna’s application to the FDA and the latest safety data.

There are no new safety concerns around the Moderna vaccine in adults, but it is linked to rare cases of two types of serious adverse events: anaphylaxis and myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation. The overall risk of myocarditis is low, but risk was greater among adolescent and young adult males and after the second dose, the advisers heard.

“The benefits for the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine far outweigh any possible vaccine-associated risk,” the CDC’s Dr. Sara Oliver told the advisers.

More than 200 million doses of the Moderna vaccine have been administered in the United States.

There is no difference between the approved vaccine and the vaccine previously available through emergency use authorization. Boosters of the Moderna vaccine continue to be available under FDA emergency use authorization.

A vial of the new children's dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine (that will supply ten doses, once reconstituted) sits in the foreground as children play in a hospital room waiting to be able to receive the vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut on November 2, 2021. - An expert panel unanimously recommended Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid vaccine for five- to 11-year-olds on November 2, the penultimate step in the process that will allow injections in young children to begin this week in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the top US public health agency, was expected to endorse that recommendation later in the day. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO / AFP) (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

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This is the second FDA-approved vaccine available in the United States. The Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was approved for people 16 and older in August.

“I still have a sense of wonder on what’s been accomplished here. That, and a deep sense of gratitude,” vaccine adviser Dr. Matthew Daley, senior investigator for the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, said at Friday’s meeting. “These vaccines were authorized and then licensed along a rapid timeline while still following all the well-established regulatory processes in place before the pandemic.

“An estimated 1.1 million deaths have been averted through vaccination in the US and countless more globally. … I don’t think we can take this for granted.”

Still, the vaccine advisers acknowledged that there’s more work ahead against Covid-19, especially to continue to push for vaccination and boosters.

About 64% of the total US population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with at least their initial series, according to the CDC. More than a quarter of the US population is fully vaccinated and boosted.

The CDC says everyone 12 and older should should get a booster dose after the last dose in their primary series.

“I would just like to reinforce the importance of the booster dose,” Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, health officer for Public Health-Seattle and King County, said during Friday’s meeting. “There are many people in our community and many communities throughout the country who have received that primary series and … who are eligible but yet have not received the booster dose.

“It’s critical to understand how necessary that booster doses to receive the full protection that these vaccines can offer against serious disease, including hospitalization and death.”