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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government advisers are meeting Thursday to decide if COVID-19 vaccines need updating to improve protection this fall and winter -- even as a new Trump administration policy has thrown into question who may be eligible for a shot.
The Food and Drug Administration's outside experts have met regularly since the launch of the first COVID-19 vaccines to discuss tweaking their recipes to stay ahead of the virus. Thursday's meeting is the group's first since President Donald Trump took office.
But it comes just two days after FDA leaders upended the prior U.S. policy of recommending annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older.
Instead, the FDA said routine approval of COVID-19 boosters will be limited to seniors and to younger people who are at high risk of severe infection. Manufacturers will need to do new studies to show whether seasonal shots still benefit healthy people younger than 65.
That raises big implications for next fall's vaccination campaign, with uncertainty over whether healthy people still could get a vaccine even if it's not recommended for them -- or whether insurers will keep paying for the shots for everyone. Nor is it clear what the policy means for babies who have never been vaccinated.
"This is a mess," said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious disease expert. "The one thing we don't want to do is put a barrier in place that prevents parents from getting their children vaccinated if they want to."
FDA's independent advisers may raise those issues Thursday, but the changes are not the focus of the meeting, which was scheduled before FDA's announcement.
Instead, the panel is set to recommend whether the virus has mutated enough to warrant strain updates for shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax.
"We are asking for guidance to help the FDA decide what strain to select for COVID-19 vaccines going forward," FDA vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad said in comments opening the meeting. Prasad added that the agency wants "to give people a little more time to digest," the new policy on vaccines and is open to feedback.