U.S. health officials on Friday said they are considering lengthening the recommended interval between the first two doses of the most widely used COVID-19 vaccines to eight weeks to lower the risk of heart inflammation and improve their effectiveness.
Dr. Sara Oliver, an official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said the agency was considering making the recommendation for Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech shots during a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel of outside advisers to the CDC.
In the United States, the recommended interval between the first two shots of Pfizer's vaccine is three weeks and for Moderna's, four.