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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is leaning toward authorizing half-dose booster shots of the Moderna Inc. coronavirus vaccine, satisfied that it’s effective in shoring up protection, people familiar with the matter said. The authorization would set the stage to further widen the U.S. booster campaign after earlier authorization of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE shot. About 170 million fully vaccinated people in the U.S. received the Moderna or Pfizer shots, or 92% of the total inoculated so far. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity, before a potential announcement. It’s not clear when an announcement will come. (Wingrove and Jacobs, 9/29)

Moderna's current vaccine shot is a 100-microgram dose, compared with Pfizer's 30-microgram dose. Cutting the Moderna doses in half could help reduce the risks of side effects from the booster. It would provide more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to help more people get the booster when it's their turn. Also, Moderna has been shown to be more effective than Pfizer at preventing hospitalizations, so the FDA believes a half dose could be effective in keeping protection intact, according to reports. (Colby, 9/29)

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that safety and efficacy data on pairing a primary regimen of Covid vaccines from one manufacturer with boosters from another could be available within the next two weeks. Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized Pfizer’s booster for seniors and the medically vulnerable Friday, only recipients of Pfizer’s first two doses are eligible for the third shot. But the National Institutes of Health is on the verge of concluding trials that mixed boosters and initial doses from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, Fauci said at a White House Covid briefing. (Towey, 9/28)

Debbie Hirsch, a 67-year-old retired special-education teacher who received the Moderna vaccine initially, wasn’t going to wait; she made an appointment on Monday at her local CVS Health Corp. pharmacy in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. A nurse there gave her a third Moderna shot, no questions asked, she said. Ms. Hirsch, whose husband is recovering from heart surgery, said she checked a box on the CVS website attesting that she was immunocompromised, even though she doesn’t qualify. FDA guidelines for patients receiving a third Moderna jab include patients who take medication to suppress their immune systems and cancer patients currently undergoing treatment. (Whelan, 9/29)

Allie French, of Omaha, Nebraska, said the move toward booster shots only reinforced her strong belief that vaccinations aren’t necessary, particularly for people who take care of themselves. “It comes back to a mindset of not needing your hand held through every situation,” said French, founder of a small advocacy group called Nebraskans Against Government Overreach. Tara Dukart, a 40-year-old rancher from Hazen, North Dakota, and a board member for Health Freedom North Dakota, an organization that has fought mask and vaccine mandates, said: “I think that there is a tremendous amount of hesitancy because why get a third shot if the first two shots didn’t work?” (Stobbe, 9/29)

The city of Detroit and other county health departments in metro Detroit are offering Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots to eligible populations days after the boosters were approved by federal regulators. And officials are urging those eligible for a booster, or those age 12 and older who have not been vaccinated, to get inoculated as cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise — mostly among the unvaccinated — and the highly-contagious delta variant circulates in the region, state and across the nation. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said Wednesday the virus has spread greatly during the last two months, including to the Midwest and Michigan. (Hall, 9/29)

Gov. Mike Parson and his wife, Teresa, are planning to get a third shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. Parson, 66, is urging Missourians to get a booster now that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has approved a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine for seniors, people with underlying medical conditions and people aged 18-64 years old who are at increased risk for being exposed to the respiratory virus. “Governor Parson supports the booster shot for those who qualify,” said spokeswoman Kelli Jones. (Erickson, 9/29)