U.S. regulators on Friday moved to open up COVID-19 booster shots to all adults, expanding the government’s campaign to shore up protection and get ahead of rising coronavirus cases that may worsen with the holidays.

Pfizer and Moderna announced the Food and Drug Administration’s decision after at least 10 states already had started offering boosters to all adults. The latest action stands to simplify what until now has been a confusing list of who’s eligible by allowing anyone 18 or older to choose either company’s booster six months after their last dose — regardless of which vaccine they had first.

But there’s one more step: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must agree to expand Pfizer and Moderna boosters to even healthy young adults. Its scientific advisers were set to debate later Friday.

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Don’t expect Washington state to pile more vaccine mandates on top of President Joe Biden’s federal one. Gov. Jay Inslee says he’s decided not to make the rules stricter here, so this is what Biden’s mandate will mean for workers in our state and the rest of the nation if courts allow it to go into effect.

The U.S. plans to pay Pfizer $5 billion for “another critical tool” against COVID-19: a new pill shown to cut hospitalizations and deaths sharply in high-risk adults. But first, the pill would need federal approval.

Austria is slamming to a full stop in a 10-day lockdown and making vaccinations mandatory to combat skyrocketing infections. Meanwhile, “all of Germany is one big outbreak.”