US CDC Recommends Omicron-Specific Boosters for All Americans – National

A panel of US health advisors has voted to recommend Pfizer’s updated COVID-19 boosters, targeting the latest strains of Omicron for people 12 and older.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to adopt the recommendation, the final step before recordings can begin.

The panel also voted to recommend Moderna’s version of the booster update to be used only on adults.

The enhanced footage of Pfizer and rival Moderna promises Americans a shot at their most up-to-date protection as the pandemic continues to reach its peak. The US is still seeing tens of thousands of coronavirus cases and about 500 deaths every day, and those numbers are expected to rise again in the fall.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the new combination syringes, which offer half the original vaccine and half protection against the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron versions now responsible for nearly all COVID-19 infections.

Advisors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began to consider how best to use them. The CDC’s final decision is the final step before the shooting begins.

It’s important to “simplify our recommendations,” warned Dr. CDC’s Melinda Wharton the Advisory Panel.

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According to Duclos, the first shipment of the Moderna Omicron booster was delivered on Friday, 10.5 million by the end of September

The original COVID-19 vaccines still offer strong protection against serious illness and death, especially in younger and healthier people who have received at least one booster shot.

But these vaccines were designed to target the virus strain that was circulating in early 2020. Effectiveness decreases as new mutants emerge and as time has passed since the last vaccination. Since April, hospitalization rates have skyrocketed among people over 65, the CDC said.

The new updated vaccinations are only intended as a booster dose for people who have received basic vaccinations, regardless of the brand or how many booster doses they have previously received. Pfizer’s option is for ages 12+, while Moderna’s is for adults only.

One big unknown: exactly how much use people will get from one of those extra shots.

The FDA approved the updated boosters based primarily on clinical studies of previous vaccine recipe tweaks, including the companies’ testing of vaccines that targeted a previous Omicron strain that was found safe and capable of activating virus-fighting antibodies . Instead of waiting a few more months for more human testing of the BA.5 version, the agency accepted mouse tests, which showed they also elicited a good immune response.

Before this new booster update, people aged 50 and older were already being encouraged to get a second booster shot of the original vaccine — and those who did saw extra protection, especially the longer it had been since their last shot, said Dr . CDC’s Ruth Link-Gelles.

The new combination booster “should provide at least similar or better protection against Omicron as it is a better match for today’s virus strains,” she told the panel.

However, many scientists say people need to wait longer between their last shot and the new booster shot than the two months the FDA has set as the minimum to get the maximum benefit.

Waiting four to six months between vaccinations is generally recommended, said virologist Andrew Pekosz of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. If someone already has a lot of antibodies in their bloodstream, another shot isn’t going to crank up as many more and essentially waste it.

“Typically you want to distribute a vaccine booster,” said Pekosz, who is closely watching where CDC draws that line. “These recommendations are going to be really critical to how good this vaccine is going to be.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.