White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci shared on Sunday that he believes the U.S. will start to widely distribute Pfizer Covid-19 booster shots during the week of Sept. 20. However, he thinks that the rollout of Moderna's vaccine booster will be delayed.
The Biden administration announced the effort to receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine last month. However, it is still pending approval from public health officials. The U.S. is recommending an additional shot eight months after the second dose, CNBC reported.
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Fauci shared on CBS' "Face the Nation" that the Food and Drug Administration and Center for Disease Control and Prevention may only approve the Pfizer vaccine booster and that those who received the Moderna shot may have to wait a little longer.
Moderna is still waiting for regulators to sign off on the third dose of its shot.
"Looks like Pfizer has their data in, likely would meet the deadline," Fauci said on CBS. "We hope that Moderna would also be able to do it, so we could do it simultaneously."
"But if not, we'll do it sequentially," he continued. "So the bottom line is, very likely, at least part of the plan will be implemented, but ultimately the entire plan will be."
On Sunday, the doctor shared with CNN that it's better for those who got two doses of the Moderna vaccine to wait for a third dose instead of getting a Pfizer shot.
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He also shared that the U.S. plans to release data in the coming weeks on mixing vaccines from different manufacturers.
More than 95 million people have received the full two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine; according to the CDC, it's the most taken COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S.
Sixty-six million people have been fully vaccinated with the Moderna shot, and 14 million have received the one dose of Johnson & Johnson.
There has been no plan for a J&J booster.
