COVID-19 updates: No unemployment benefits for vaccine refusal in this state

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has endorsed an independent advisory panel's recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, six months after their second dose.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, also partially overruled her agency's advisory panel in a notable departure by adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work, such as nurses and teachers -- a group which the panel rejected in its recommendation. Some panelists said that without further data, they weren't comfortable with automatically including younger people because of their jobs.

In a statement announcing her decision late Thursday, Walensky pointed to the benefit versus risk analysis she had weighed, and data rapidly evolving.

"In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good," Walensky said. "While today’s action was an initial step related to booster shots, it will not distract from our most important focus of primary vaccination in the United States and around the world."

With Walensky's final sign-off, booster shots will now quickly become available for millions more Americans at pharmacies, doctors' offices and other sites that offer the Pfizer vaccine as soon as Friday.

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik

The nation’s largest union of registered nurses pushed back against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel's vote on COVID-19 booster shots, calling not including front-line workers like nurses in its recommendations "unconscionable."

National Nurses United is urging CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to bypass what the advisory panel, ACIP, recommended and add nurses and other health care workers to the list of eligible booster recipients.  

"Nurses and other health care workers were among the first to be vaccinated because of their high risk of exposure to the virus," Deborah Burger, the union's president, said in a statement. "Why leave them out of booster shots?"

“It is unconscionable that ACIP would not vote to keep us safer from death, severe Covid, and long Covid,” Burger continued. “We must do everything possible to ensure that the health of our nurses and other health care workers will not be put even more at risk."

ACIP voted Thursday to recommend a third Pfizer dose for people aged 65 and older, as well as those as young as 18 if they have an underlying medical condition.

In its authorization Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration did agree to make the shots available to front-line workers. But ACIP said there was not yet enough data to support providing booster shots automatically to young people because of their jobs.  

 -ABC News' Sasha Pezenik

An independent advisory panel for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unanimously voted on Thursday to recommend a booster shot of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans, six months after their second dose.

The panel voted to allow a third dose for people aged 65 and older, along with long-term care facility residents and people as young as 18, if they have an underlying medical condition. People younger than 49, however, should only get that booster shot if the benefits outweigh the risks, the panel said -- a personal consideration to discuss with their doctor.

The panel voted "no" for a booster for those in an occupational or institutional setting where "the burden of COVID-19 infection and risk of transmission are high," such as nurses and teachers. Some panelists said that without further data, they weren't comfortable with automatically including younger people because of their jobs.

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik, Anne Flaherty, Sony Salzman and Arielle Mitropoulos

Pending the CDC panel's recommendations and the CDC director's sign-off, more than 26 million Americans could soon be eligible for a third Pfizer dose. This includes 13.6 million adults 65 and older and 12.8 million adults ages 18 to 64 who completed their primary series at least six months ago. Of those 18 to 64, anyone who is considered “high risk” could be eligible for an additional dose.

To date, more than 220 million Pfizer doses have been administered in the U.S.  

-ABC News' Sasha Pezenik, Sony Salzman, Arielle Mitropoulos