The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee voted in a meeting Friday morning unanimously in favor of distributing COVID-19 booster shots to individuals with weakened immune systems.

The meeting began at 11:00 a.m. where they discussed their considerations for such immunocompromised people, which they defined as those with medical conditions or people receiving treatments that are associated with with moderate to severe immune compromise.

The CDC detailed what they have defined as moderately and severely immunocompromised people:

- Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies

- Receipt of solid organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy.

- Receipt of CAR-T cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (within two years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy)

- Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (e.g. DiGeorge, Wiskott-Aldrich syndromes)

- Advanced or untreated HIV infection

- Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids, alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunocompressive, TNF blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory.

Individuals 12 years old and over would qualify for the Pfizer booster shot and individuals 18 and over would qualify for the Moderna booster shot. Johnson & Johnson is currently not recommended due to insufficient data. The FDA and CDC are both working to provide guidance for this issue.

Individuals receiving the booster shots should match their shots with their primary series of vaccines, however an alternate mRNA products can be used in the event that the primary series is not available.

Individuals should wait at least 28 days after completing the primary vaccine series to get their boosters.