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America’s booster shots are booming. An NBC News analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that the number of people receiving booster shots is outpacing those getting their first or second doses of the initial vaccination, and is contributing to a modest increase in Covid vaccinations in October. Of the 6.7 million shots administered from Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, nearly 2.7 million were booster shots. That’s compared to the nearly 2 million first doses and nearly 2 million second doses in the same period. (Ramos, 10/7)

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Thursday defended herself for having overruled an expert panel on whether health care workers and other frontline workers should be offered Covid-19 booster shots, saying her decision was based on how she would have voted, had she been able to cast a vote. Walensky insisted she made the call without consulting the White House, which had announced in mid-August a plan to give booster shots to all Americans 16 years of age and older, even though the Food and Drug Administration had not yet approved any company’s booster shots. Currently only one booster jab has been authorized — the one made by Pfizer and BioNTech. (Branswell and Gil, 10/7)

With federal health officials set to consider Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for children 5 years and older, most Americans are slated to qualify for a shot soon. But a widening gap between vaccination rates could slow the country's progress in its fight against Covid-19, an expert warned Thursday. For 12-to-17-year-olds, a key demographic that lags other age groups with just 47% fully vaccinated nationwide, many Southern states are trailing even further behind. (Elamroussi, 10/8)

Parents tired of worrying about classroom outbreaks and sick of telling their elementary school-age children no to sleepovers and family gatherings felt a wave of relief Thursday when Pfizer asked the U.S. government to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine for youngsters ages 5 to 11. If regulators give the go-ahead, reduced-dose kids’ shots could begin within a matter of weeks. That could bring many families a step closer to being done with remote learning, virus scares and repeated school shutdowns and quarantines. (McDermott and Neergaard, 10/7)

Divorced parents who disagree about coronavirus vaccination are taking their fights to court. The tensions have been fueled by inconsistent mask rules, misinformation and reports of more children hospitalized for covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. ... Laws vary state to state. Jonathan Bates, a family lawyer in Dallas, says that in most Texas cases, “the parents each have the independent right to consent to noninvasive medical decisions.” But whether vaccination is invasive depends on whom you ask. (Nguyen, 10/7)

The devastating impact of the Delta variant helped push John Arthur Brown into action. Brown, an Atlanta photographer, had been reluctant to get vaccinated. “I was the hesitant one,’’ he said. His doubts were based on how quickly the Covid-19 vaccines were developed. He had what he called a mild case of Covid last June. But some time later, he began experiencing what he calls long-term Covid symptoms. “Much of it was fatigue,’’ he said. He recently read a Facebook post that said a person’s long-haul Covid symptoms had subsided after vaccination. With that in mind, and with Delta raging, Brown decided to get the shots in August. And he started feeling significantly better. (Miller, 10/7)

KHN: NY Reaches Agreement With DOJ Over Vaccine Access For Blind People 

Five New York state and local government agencies agreed to fix covid-19 vaccine websites to make them accessible for blind users following a Department of Justice investigation spurred by a KHN story. New York State’s Department of Health, the City of New York’s Department of Health, New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., Nassau County and Suffolk County entered into written agreements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, saying they have corrected issues that prevent blind or visually impaired users from accessing forms or navigating vaccine websites. In the agreements announced Tuesday, they pledged to maintain accessibility on those sites. (Weber and Recht, 10/8)

KHN: Organ Centers To Transplant Patients: Get A Covid Shot Or Move Down On Waitlist 

A Colorado kidney transplant candidate who was bumped to inactive status for failing to get a covid-19 vaccine has become the most public example of an argument roiling the nation’s more than 250 organ transplant centers. Across the country, growing numbers of transplant programs have chosen to either bar patients who refuse to take the widely available covid vaccines from receiving transplants, or give them lower priority on crowded organ waitlists. Other programs, however, say they plan no such restrictions — for now. (Aleccia, 10/8)

Two new studies show the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provided diminished protection over time against coronavirus infection, although one of them presented strong evidence the shots continue to offer powerful protection against severe COVID, hospitalization and death. The studies, conducted in Israel and Qatar, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Both concluded that vaccine protection diminishes the most for people age 65 and older as well as the immunocompromised, supporting the Biden administration's moves to prioritize those groups for booster shots. (Bacon and Tebor, 10/7)

KHN: Covid Immunity Through Infection Or Vaccination: Are They Equal? 

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, a University of California-Irvine psychiatry professor, felt he didn’t need to be vaccinated against covid because he’d fallen ill with the disease in July 2020. So, in August, he sued to stop the university system’s vaccination mandate, saying “natural” immunity had given him and millions of others better protection than any vaccine could. A judge on Sept. 28 dismissed Kheriaty’s request for an injunction against the university over its mandate, which took effect Sept. 3. While Kheriaty intends to pursue the case further, legal experts doubt that his and similar lawsuits filed around the country will ultimately succeed. (Allen, 10/8)

A growing number of anecdotes about COVID-19 vaccines affecting a person's menstrual cycle is spurring attention and research funding. Efforts to halt the pandemic are being stymied by continued vaccine hesitancy, in part due to disinformation about side effects. A CDC scientist tells Axios "there is absolutely no evidence" that the altered periods reported by some are causing infertility, a common refrain among anti-vaxxers. "Women of childbearing age should absolutely be vaccinated," says CDC medical officer Christine Olson, who is head of the v-safe pregnancy registry. (O'Reilly, 10/7)