Federal Agencies Revive COVID Vaccine Push with Updated Shots: Here’s What They’re up to

U.S. regulators approved updated COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, shots designed to more closely target recent virus strains — and whatever variants cause trouble this winter, too.

With the Food and Drug Administration’s clearance, Pfizer and Moderna are set to begin shipping millions of doses. A third U.S. manufacturer, Novavax, expects its modified vaccine version to be available a little later.

The agency’s decision came a bit earlier than last year’s roll-out of updated COVID-19 vaccines, as a summer wave of the virus continues in most of the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already has recommended this fall’s shot for everyone age 6 months and older. Vaccinations could be available within days.

While most Americans have some degree of immunity from prior infections or vaccinations or both, that protection wanes. Last fall’s shots targeted a different part of the coronavirus family tree, a strain that is no longer circulating — and CDC data shows only about 22.5 percent of adults and 14 percent of children received it.

This fall’s vaccine recipe is tailored to a newer branch of omicron descendants. The Pfizer and Moderna shots target a sub-type called KP.2 that was common earlier this year. While additional offshoots, particularly KP.3.1.1, now are spreading, they are closely enough related that the vaccines promise cross-protection. A Pfizer spokesman said the company submitted data to FDA showing its updated vaccine “generates a substantially improved response” against multiple virus sub-types compared to last fall’s vaccine.

This summer’s wave of COVID-19 is not over, but the inevitable winter surges tend to be worse. And while COVID-19 vaccines do a good job preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death, protection against mild infection lasts only a few months.

People who are at high risk from the virus should not wait, but instead schedule vaccinations once shots are available in their area, Hopkins advised.

That includes older adults, people with weak immune systems or other serious medical problems, nursing home residents and pregnant women.

Healthy younger adults and children “can get vaccinated anytime. I don’t think there’s a real reason to wait,” Hopkins said – although it’s OK to seek the shots in the fall, when plenty of doses will have arrived at pharmacies and doctor’s offices.

The exception: The CDC says anyone who recently had COVID-19 can wait three months after they recover before getting vaccinated, until immunity from that infection begins to wane.

Health authorities say it is fine to get a COVID-19 and flu vaccination at the same time. But while many drugstores already are advertising flu shots, the prime time for that vaccination tends to be late September through October, just before flu typically starts its cold weather climb.

The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.