The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday is expected to authorize extra doses of coronavirus vaccines for patients with weakened immune systems, a move that could mean additional shots will be available for that vulnerable population as soon as this weekend.
Making such patients eligible for an extra shot, doctors say, is preferable to having worried patients seek out additional inoculations illicitly — which is already happening. Federal health officials have estimated that about 3 percent of U.S. adults are immunocompromised. They are more likely to become seriously ill from covid-19, experts say.
The timing of the expected action was described by people with knowledge of the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The Washington Post first reported Friday that action on the shots was imminent.
