The FDA authorized updated COVID boosters from Pfizer and Moderna that target the BA.5 subvariant.
COVID-19 is still making people sick and leading to hospitalizations and deaths. The older vaccine formulas are still effective at preventing severe disease, but the mutating virus is whittling some of that protection away.
The CDC is meeting this week to decide whether to recommend the new boosters and how they’ll roll out to the public.
Many Americans are close to getting an updated COVID-19 booster that targets newer versions of omicron. The US Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s and Moderna’s boosters on Wednesday, clearing the way for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to also give its approval and decide who needs a booster, when they need it, and how the fall COVID-19 vaccine campaign should roll out.
Both updated boosters are an effort to help the COVID-19 vaccines stave off infections as the coronavirus continues to mutate. In June, the FDA asked for boosters focusing on BA.4/BA.5, combined with an older strain of the virus, as updated bivalent (two-part) boosters. BA.5 makes up the majority of current COVID-19 cases.
The US Department of Health and Human Services said on July 29 that it had ordered 66 million doses of Moderna’s bivalent booster candidate, purchased with reallocated money meant for other COVID-19 resources, as health officials have failed to secure more funding from Congress. The US has also secured a previous order of 105 million doses of Pfizer, but that isn’t enough for all people in the US, the HHS said in the press release. It’s unclear now how many eligible people will opt for an updated booster, given the relatively low rates of the first and second “original” boosters already offered in the US.
Here’s what we know about the fall COVID-19 vaccine strategy.
Read more: Moderna Sues Pfizer Over mRNA Technology Used in COVID Vaccines
The FDA authorized Pfizer and BioNTech’s and Moderna’s bivalent (two-component) vaccine boosters, which include the BA.4/BA.5 spike protein in addition to an older strain. Pfizer’s is for people age 12 and older, and Moderna’s is for adults 18 and up.
The vaccines currently on the market use the older “ancestral” strains of the virus. These vaccines still provide good protection against severe disease and death, but the effectiveness against infection is becoming more limited as the virus keeps mutating.
The CDC’s advisory committee is meeting Thursday and (most likely) Friday to discuss safety and effectiveness data and decide whether and how to recommend the updated boosters to the public. An official recommendation could come as early as Thursday afternoon.
The CDC’s meetings are public, and you can watch live on the CDC’s website. Streaming starts Thursday at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET.
It’s possible that the CDC will make different recommendations for different groups based on health risk factors (a stronger recommendation could be made for older adults and people with certain health conditions, for example). Or the CDC could open up updated boosters for everyone 12 and up.
The US has already purchased millions of doses of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s updated boosters, so we can expect the new vaccine to be available quickly after the final recommendation from the CDC’s director.
Both BA.4 and BA.5 are considered part of the “original” omicron variant (BA.1) family. They’re newer versions of the virus that causes COVID-19. BA.5 quickly overtook the conversation because of its extreme contagiousness, and it’s now the dominant variant in the US.
While we’re still living out the true effects of a BA.5 summer surge in the US, the new subvariant is thought to whittle away much of the infection protection people got from prior sickness, even with other omicron variants.
Omicron caused such a huge number of cases last winter because it was the most contagious variant to date, evading some infection protection from prior illness and effectiveness of the vaccines. The fact that newer versions of omicron are proving to be even more contagious isn’t a big surprise, as this is the path COVID-19 has taken over the last two and half years.
Read more about everything we know about BA.5.
Novavax, which just received the CDC’s recommendation for its primary two-dose vaccine, said earlier this summer that it’s speeding up work on a formula specifically targeting the new versions of omicron, but it isn’t on the table yet for this fall and winter vaccine campaign.
Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, though still available in the US, has been recommended only for people who can’t take, or don’t want to take, another COVID-19 vaccine, because of the risk of a very rare but dangerous side effect. J&J didn’t respond to an earlier request for comment on the company’s plans for the fall in the US.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
