Today the Food and Drug Administration "authorized the first redesign of coronavirus vaccines since they were rolled out in late 2020, setting up millions of Americans to receive new booster doses targeting Omicron subvariants as soon as next week," report Noah Weiland and Sharon LaFraniere of The New York Times. "The agency cleared two options aimed at the BA.5 variant of Omicron that is now dominant: one made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for use in people as young as 12, and the other by Moderna, for those 18 and older." The boosters also target the BA.4 subvariant.
People are eligible for the new booster only if they are fully vaccinated, and if it's been at least two months since they got their latest booster or finished the initial two-shot series. Older formulations of the booster will no longer be authorized for people aged 12 and over, the Times reports. The new boosters are now being shipped out and could be available locally as soon as this week.
Fewer and fewer people take advantage of boosters each time a new one is offered, perhaps out of weariness over the pandemic or because they feel sufficiently protected by the initial vaccination. However, FDA officials say the booster could help curb infections and deaths during the winter months, when numbers tend to be higher, the Times reports.
"An average of about 90,000 infections and 475 deaths are recorded every day around the United States, almost three years into a pandemic that has killed more than a million Americans and driven a historic drop in life expectancy," the Times reports. "But there are also hopeful signs. Even with high case counts, fewer than 40,000 people are currently hospitalized with the virus, a decrease of 10 percent since early August and far fewer than during the Delta-driven surge last summer or the Omicron-fueled wave last winter. Deaths have also remained somewhat flat in recent weeks, a sign that vaccines are helping to prevent the worst outcomes of Covid-19."
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