CDC advisers recommend updated coronavirus booster shot for fall

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended that millions of Americans, including those as young as 12, should get an omicron-targeting coronavirus booster shot to bolster defenses against serious illness and death during a potential fall or winter rise in covid-19 cases. The vote was 13-1 in favor of updated boosters from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is expected to endorse the recommendation on the reformulated vaccine within hours, allowing some clinicians, pharmacies and other providers to begin administering shots as early as this weekend. Thursday's action, along with authorization of the shots a day earlier by the Food and Drug Administration, marked another turning point in the pandemic and reflected the persistent struggle to tamp down illness and death 2 years since the pandemic dawned.

Several members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices expressed concern about the lack of clinical data about the reformulated boosters, but they also noted the harm in waiting for clinical data until November. Matthew Daley, a physician at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, said the cost of waiting until later November to roll out the updated booster shot could be an additional 9,700 deaths and 137,000 hospitalizations, based on projections presented at the day-long meeting.

"I think that is the tension that I feel for sure," Daley said. But with the FDA decision, "we're now in the position where we have millions of doses of bivalent vaccines that are ready and available. And I think they're going to be an effective tool for disease prevention this fall and into the end of the winter." The latest recommendation for boosters provides a new opportunity for the Biden administration and public health experts to launch another round of messaging to a pandemic-weary public about the importance of vaccination against a virus still killing an average of more than 500 people a day in the United States.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/09/01/cdc-fall-booster-shots/

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No paywall link

Meeting just ended after the vote. Once CDC Dir. Walensky signs off, it's done.

Voting questions -

[SheltieLover]

1. Excellent! 👏👏👏👏

Ty!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. CDC advisers back new booster shots to fight omicron

My kids have already told me that I need this booster

Link to tweet

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/09/01/1120560488/cdc-advisers-back-new-booster-shots-to-fight-omicron?utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr

Vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have endorsed the first reformulated versions of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines. The vote was 13 in favor and one no vote.

The booster shots target both the original strain of the coronavirus and the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants that most people are catching now. This double-barreled vaccine is called a bivalent vaccine.

The CDC advisors recommended that anyone age 12 and older get the new Pfizer-BioNTech boosters as authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The updated Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for anyone 18 and older.

In both cases people would have to wait two months after completing their initial vaccination or their last booster shot. But many vaccine experts say it would be better to wait at least four months since the last shot or COVID infection, or the boosters won't work as well.

This is the first time the FDA has authorized vaccines without requiring they get tested in people. To keep up with the rapidly evolving virus, the FDA relied on how well the shots stimulated the immune systems of mice. They also looked at how well similar shots targeted at earlier variants worked on people.

[crickets]

3. Cool. I dithered too long on my second booster

and then didn't want to get it because this one was on the way. Glad to hear it's available so soon!

[BumRushDaShow]

4. One of the Committee members had mentioned that they were already being shipped out

I had a 2nd booster in May and want to aim this one to do with the annual flu shot - maybe some time in October (got my first booster last year with the flu shot - one in each arm ).

[crickets]

5. Yes, it's almost flu shot time as well.

You are braver than I to get both at once. Being chicken, I'm going to stagger the timing just a bit.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. I have fortunately not had any adverse reaction from the flu shot

and since I did Moderna's booster, which was 1/2 of the original dose amounts, I had very little reaction to that first booster, and had zero reaction to the 2nd booster.

[mgardener]

14. I think I will do that too

We are going to Disney in Oct.
I want to be as prepared as I can be.
N 95 masks will be the first thing I pack.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. They say it takes about 2 weeks for either or both to be most effective

So you may want to time it for the trip.

[orangecrush]

6. KICK

[reACTIONary]

8. K&R 👍

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Walensky just signed off on it so it's a one deal!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142963917

[reACTIONary]

10. 👍👍👍👍👍

[littlemissmartypants]

11. Yay! ❤️

[TNNurse]

12. Will take as soon as available

[niyad]

13. KNR

[Irish_Dem]

16. Just scheduled mine at CVS.

They had appointments available today, but I am busy this weekend.
So going in first thing next week.

[GregariousGroundhog]

17. So if I'm reading the slides correctly

If we've received two primary series doses and one booster dose, the CDC recommends receiving the new bivalent dose even if we were not in the population of people previously recommended to receive a second booster?

[BumRushDaShow]

18. Yes.

They said they are trying to simplify the confusing guidance with number of previous doses given. The criteria would be age 18+ for Moderna's and age 12+ for Pfizer's and at least 2 months after the last dose.

[henbuck]

19. Got mine yesterday.