Day 627: Mix'n'Match

Without citing any evidence, The New York Times reports that the FDA is planning to permit boosting with a different vaccine later this week:

Federal regulators this week are aiming to greatly expand the number of Americans eligible for booster shots. The F.D.A. is expected to authorize boosters of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines by Wednesday evening; it could allow the mix-and-match approach by then. The agency last month authorized booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for at least six months after the second dose.

An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will take up the booster issue on Thursday; the agency will then issue its own recommendations. By the end of the week, tens of millions more Americans could be eligible for extra shots.

They don't seem to think the list of boostable people will be changing from prior reports: all adult Johnson & Johnson recipients, plus at-risk Moderna recipients presumably matching the Pfizer booster candidates.

CNBC reports Southwest has backed down on their vaccine mandate deadline. Employees will now go on working while their exemption requests are processed.

P.S. Massachusetts cases were up a quarter of a percentage point.