Although boosters have been available to a limited population for a while, only about 16% of those eligible for the extra shots have gotten them so far.Some states have already allowed boosters for all adults.
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Committee members said they hoped that loosening the restrictions would reduce confusion about who is eligible and encourage more people to get an additional shot.
"The current guidelines, though well intentioned and thoughtful…create confusion," Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the advisory panel.
Shah, who is not a voting member but who participated in Friday's meeting as president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials said state health officials are unanimously in favor of loosening restrictions on boosters. "We want to remove confusion and replace it with clarity," he said. "Eligible individuals are not receiving boosters at the moment because of this confusion."
Booster shots have been shown to be extremely safe, with no additional side effects beyond those seen in initial shots.
In Israel, where about 4 million people have received boosters, fewer side effects have been seen after the third dose than the second. This was also true for a rare side effected called myocarditis, in which the heart muscle becomes inflamed.
On balance, the committee members said the data convinced them that boosters should be available to everyone.
"It is reasonable for us to facilitate an individual being able to make the choice of benefit versus risk," said committee member Dr. Sarah Long, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Drexel University College of Medicine and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, both in Philadelphia.
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