Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.
Officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday that only adults older than 65 and people with specific medical conditions will be considered eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations this fall.
Healthy Americans younger than 65 may be eligible for vaccine boosters depending on the outcomes of new clinical trials.
FDA commissioner Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, published the agency’s new framework in the New England Journal of Medicine. They wrote that that the United States’ existing policy is more aggressive than those in European nations and Canada, most of which recommend COVID-19 boosters primarily for older adults and those classified as high-risk.
“The FDA will approve vaccines for high-risk persons and, at the same time, demand robust, gold-standard data on persons at low risk,” they wrote.
Makary and Prasad used the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) definition of “high risk,” which includes asthma, cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, heart conditions, pregnancy, and tuberculosis.
The FDA also approved a new COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax on 17 May, with similar limitations.
Fewer Americans are opting into COVID boosters, with CDC data reporting that just 23% of adults and 13% of those under 18 had received the 2024-2025 vaccine as of 26 April.
However, COVID-19 still presents a danger. The CDC estimates that between 1 October 2024 and 10 May 2025, there were 260,000 to 430,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations and 30,000 to 50,000 COVID-19 deaths. Research has found that environmental factors, such as exposure to air pollution and proximity to gas and oil wells, can increase the likelihood or severity of the disease.
“This an anti-science move that will kill more Americans,” Lucky Tran, director of science communication and media relations at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, wrote on Bluesky.
—Emily Dieckman (@emfurd.bsky.social), Associate Editor
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