J&J seeks COVID-19 booster approval, Australia extends travel ban

Johnson & Johnson became the latest COVID-19 vaccine maker to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its booster shot Tuesday, the same day Australia announced it would not allow foreign tourists back in the country until at least 2022.

The booster shot would be available for those 18 and older if it received approval. Johnson & Johnson submitted data on taking boosters from anywhere between two and six months after originally getting the one-dose shot. However, the company did not make a recommendation on the ideal length between original shot and booster.

The FDA is convening its outside panel of advisers next Friday to review studies from the company and other researchers and vote on whether to give booster approval. The advisers will also look at booster data from Moderna.

If the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention give booster approval, Americans could begin getting J&J and Moderna boosters by the end of October.

“Both J&J and FDA have a sense of urgency because it’s COVID and we want good data out there converted into action as soon as possible,” Dr. Mathai Mammen, head of research for J&J’s Janssen unit, said.

J&J’s booster approval request comes as the Department of Health and Human Services released new data on the impacts of the vaccine rollout among Medicare recipients.

“Our results indicate that COVID-19 vaccinations from January until May 2021 were associated with an estimated reduction of more than 265,000 COVID-19 infections and nearly 39,000 deaths among Medicare beneficiaries,” the department’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation said in a Tuesday press release.

Meanwhile in Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison laid out an updated priority list and timeline for overseas travel Tuesday, saying “we will get to international visitors as well, I believe, next year”.

The video above shows Morrison’s comments.

“The first cab off the rank is Australians – Australian citizens and Australian residents who are vaccinated,” Morrison said. “The next priorities are skilled migrants that are very important for the country and who are double vaccinated, as well as students who are coming and returning to Australia for their studies.”