The Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory committee meets today to make recommendations on which COVID strain to target for the fall and to formalize new FDA rules limiting vaccine access to Americans aged 65 and older.
Under the new rules, unveiled Tuesday, access to vaccines will be restricted for younger, healthy Americans. FDA officials stated there is insufficient evidence that healthy individuals under 65 would benefit from an additional shot.
The decision to limit COVID-19 vaccines to older adults was made by Vinay Prasad, who was recently appointed director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Prasad is a vocal critic of mask mandates and fast-tracked COVID boosters, which became contentious issues during pandemic lockdowns.
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Data shows that many adults opted not to receive updated COVID-19 shots this season. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 22% of Americans received an updated COVID-19 shot during the 2024-25 season.
The rate of Americans over age 65 who received an updated COVID-19 vaccine was likely higher. Among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries over age 65, about 28% had received the shot by late February.
The COVID-19 vaccine is updated annually to best combat the active strains of the virus.
"The FDA’s new COVID-19 philosophy represents a balance of regulatory flexibility and a commitment to gold-standard science," Prasad wrote earlier this week. "The FDA will approve vaccines for high-risk persons and, at the same time, demand robust, gold-standard data on persons at low risk. These clinical trials will inform future directions for the FDA, but more important, they will provide information that is desperately craved by health care providers and the American people."
