President Joe Biden\u2019s chief medical adviser said booster shots for more of the U.S. population remain a possibility soon, as additional data on the still-widening outbreak come in.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 President Biden\u2019s chief medical adviser said booster shots for more of the U.S. population remain a possibility soon, as additional data on the still-widening outbreak come in. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke two days after an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected a national rollout of boosters for all ages, approving them only for people 65 and older and those who are medically vulnerable. \u201cThe story is not over because more and more data is coming in and will be coming in,\u201d Fauci said Sunday on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d Last month, Biden said a broad booster plan would begin on Monday. The panel\u2019s narrower recommendation on Friday was seen as rebuke to a president whose policy was getting ahead of the science. Fauci said he did not believe the panel \u201cmade a mistake.\u201d \u201cThe one thing people need to realize is data are coming in literally on a daily and weekly basis,\u201d he said on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union.\u201d \u201cThey are going to continue to look at this literally in real-time.\u201d The FDA panel approved limited third shots for the vaccine by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE. Fauci said on ABC he expected booster data from Moderna Inc. and Johnson & Johnson would likely be evaluated in \u201ca couple of weeks.\u201d He said he expected vaccines for children younger than 12, who aren\u2019t eligible yet, would be evaluated as early as October. Requiring vaccines on airlines, a policy Fauci has said he personally supports, remains a possibility. \u201cEverything is on the table,\u201d he said NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press.\u201d \u201cWe consider these things literally on a daily basis.\u201d National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins also weighed in on the booster debate, telling \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d that the panel\u2019s recommendation Friday was correct based on a \u201csnapshot\u201d of available data on the effectiveness of Pfizer\u2019s two-shot regimen over time. But, Collins said real-time data from the U.S. and Israel continue to come in showing waning efficacy among broader groups of people that will need to be addressed soon. \u201cI think there will be a decision in the coming weeks to extend boosters beyond the list that they approved on Friday,\u201d said Collins on CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d The Food and Drug Administration will consider the advisory group\u2019s advice and make its own decision, probably within days. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also is set to weigh in this week.<\/p>\n