COVID booster shot awaits FDA approval as WHO calls for moratorium on 3rd doses for healthy people

CHICAGO (WLS) -- As a kidney transplant recipient, 6th-grade teacher Karla Muench returned to her classroom this year feeling a bit safer because, as an immunocompromised person, she qualified for a booster.

"I'm really happy they provided it to me," She said. "It was a simple piece of paper filled out and I kind of just mentioned that I had a kidney transplant [and] got my 3rd booster."

While booster shots are only limited to immunocompromised people, a Pfizer booster will be available for healthy people as soon as the FDA approves it. However, the World Health Organization is, again, calling for a booster moratorium until the end of the year so poorer countries get the doses they need.

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"If those same doses were administered in global hot spots, you can save something like 100,000 peoples' lives," said Dr. William Parker, a UC Medicine Medical Ethicist.

The Biden Administration said the United States has already given millions of free doses to countries in need and has invested in increasing vaccine production.

The administration also said boosting Americans and vaccinating other countries can be done at the same time.

Parker agrees, only if randomized control trials can be done to determine the correct interval between doses and the right dose for a booster.

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"If you can boost everyone with half the supply, it makes it more likely we can do both -- boost Americans and vaccinate the world," Parker said.

It's been reported that a half dose of the Moderna vaccine produces the same antibody reasoned as a full dose.

In the meantime, a Sept. 17 FDA meeting is scheduled to discuss the Pfizer booster.