By Manas Mishra

(Reuters) – If a panel consists of experts, Americans may be eligible to receive a second round of COVID-19 vaccinations. The panel met as scheduled on Friday.

Over 31,000,000 Americans have received booster shots, but federal guidelines recommend only extra doses to certain population groups.

Pfizer Inc (NYSE) and BioNTech Se (NASDAQ:), asked weeks ago the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve boosters for all adults. Moderna This week, Inc submitted an application for the same group.

While the FDA hasn’t yet issued an authorization for boosters, they are expected to in the near future to make a recommendation to the Centers for U.S. Disease Control and Prevention.

Politico published late Thursday that FDA was ready to endorse them both Friday.

A recommendation would follow the CDC meeting from its director. This agency has supported boosters publicly.

At a time where individual states, such as Massachusetts, California and Colorado have made every adult eligible for COVID-19 vaccination boosters, it is possible to make a general recommendation that could help bring consistency across the country.

In a tweet on Twitter, Dr. Leana Wein, an emergency doctor and professor of public health at George Washington University said that “the messaging has become confused”.

Pfizer had previously asked for authorization to all persons aged 16 and over. However, U.S. health advisors resisted extending boosters, in part because of insufficient evidence that there is a decline in immunity or a need among younger patients.

Some CDC outside advisors raised concern that booster doses may not be necessary in healthy young people for whom the first vaccination is sufficient to protect against serious diseases and death.

Pfizer reported that data from large clinical studies showed that a booster dose was 96% more effective than a vaccine that had not been administered.

Israeli data shows that booster shots from BioNTech and Pfizer significantly reduced the spread of viruses.

Moderna doesn’t have comparable data, however the vaccines are based on messengerRNA and function in the exact same manner.

Anthony Fauci, an American infectious disease specialist, stated earlier in the week that boosters could prevent infection because of increased cases and warmer weather.

The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases has seen “a surge in interest in boosters for-all,” according to Dr. William Schaffner. He is a prominent infectious disease expert and liaison at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Schaffner stated that although the panel may be divided, it’s likely that they will vote for booster eligibility extension.

The panel is expected to recommend boosters for broad populations based on evidence that vaccine-generated antibody levels drop over several months. This was according to Robert Klugman from UMass Memorial Health Care.

Pfizer/BioNTech/Modera offers booster doses for messenger RNA vaccines (mRNA). These are for immunocompromised people, 65-year-olds and older, as well as individuals who have been exposed to severe illness or are at higher risk for the virus via work, living or other activities.

There are some reports that Americans were able to obtain boosters regardless of whether they qualify.

Schaffner stated that there is “a lot of boosting” going on, which does not comply with the existing recommendations.

Nearly 60% of adult Americans – some 195.6 million people – are considered fully vaccinated, having received two doses of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) vaccine.