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Welcome to Insider Healthcare. I'm healthcare editor Leah Rosenbaum, and this week in healthcare news:

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Karen DeSalvo Google Health
Dr. Karen DeSalvo, Google's chief health officer.
Google Health

At the HLTH 2021 conference, execs spoke about the future of healthcare

This week, we sent almost all of our healthcare team out to Boston for the 2021 HLTH conference.

Our reporters met with dozens of executives to find out what the next big trends in healthcare will be.

We'll have more coverage of HLTH in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, we want to know, what did you take away from the conference? Reply to Blake Dodge's tweet asking that here.

Read more>>

Google's health chief lays out the company's next steps after shying away from a full healthcare business


Japanese man receiving moderna vaccine
An employee (R) of Japan's Suntory Holdings receives the Moderna coronavirus vaccine for Covid-19 .
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images

FDA and CDC OK booster shots for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines

In an exciting announcement on Wednesday, the FDA authorized booster shots for Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine to people at high risk for severe disease and older adults. People in these categories can get booster shots 6 months after their second Moderna shot.

At the same time, the FDA authorized a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for anyone who got a single dose of the vaccine at least 2 months ago. Andrew and I covered the big news.

On Thursday, the CDC agreed with the FDA and booster shots became official US policy.

Up next: an expert FDA panel is set on Tuesday to review the evidence around the use of Pfizer's vaccine in kids 5-11. Ahead of that recommendation, Pfizer released new results on Friday that show the vaccine is 91% effective in that age group.

Here's what you need to know>>

The FDA just authorized booster shots of Moderna's and Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccines and is letting users mix and match shots


woman in scrubs prepares covid-19 vaccine, with patient and doctor chatting in background
Chanei Henry, senior research coordinator of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, prepares a COVID-19 vaccine.
Baylor College of Medicine

Mix & match becomes mainstream

Researchers have been talking for months about the potential benefit to "mixing-and-matching" COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots.

On Wednesday, the FDA announced that the agency now authorizes people to do it. These "heterologous" vaccines can sometimes produce a stronger immune response, research has found.

Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce and Hilary Brueck discuss how they work.

Dive in>>

How 'mix and match' COVID-19 booster shots work, and why we're using them


More stories that kept us busy this week:


-Leah

Read the original article on Business Insider