US regulators approved updated COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, shots designed to more closely target the latest strains of the virus — and hopefully any variants that cause trouble this winter as well.
With the Food and Drug Administration’s approval, Pfizer and Moderna will begin shipping millions of doses.
A third US manufacturer, Novavax, expects a modified version of the vaccine to be available later.
“We strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider getting an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants,” said FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks.
The agency’s decision came just ahead of last year’s rollout of updated COVID-19 vaccines, as a summer wave of the virus continues across much of the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already recommended this fall’s vaccine for all ages 6 months and older.
Vaccinations may be available within days.
While most Americans have some immunity from previous infections or vaccinations or both, this protection wanes.
Last fall’s shots targeted a different part of the coronavirus family tree, a strain that no longer circulates — and CDC data shows that only about 22.5% of adults and 14% of children got it.
Skipping the new vaccine is “a dangerous way to go” because even if your last infection was mild, the next infection could be worse or leave you with lingering symptoms of COVID, said Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr. of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
This fall’s vaccine recipe is tailored to a younger branch of omicron’s offspring.
The Pfizer and Moderna shots target a subtype called KP.2 that was common earlier this year.
While additional branches, particularly KP.3.1.1, are now spreading, they are sufficiently related that vaccines promise cross-protection.
A Pfizer spokesman said the company submitted data to the FDA showing that its updated vaccine “generates a substantially improved response” against multiple subtypes of the virus compared to last fall’s vaccine.
The main question: How soon to get vaccinated?
This summer’s wave of COVID-19 isn’t over, but the inevitable winter surges tend to be worse.
And while vaccines against COVID-19 do a good job of preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death, protection against mild infection lasts only a few months.
People who are at high risk for the virus should not wait, but instead schedule vaccinations once vaccines are available in their area, Hopkins advised.
This includes the elderly, people with weakened immune systems or other serious medical problems, nursing home residents and pregnant women.
Healthy young adults and children “can be vaccinated at any time. I don’t think there’s a real reason to wait,” Hopkins said — although it’s OK to ask for the shots in the fall, when many doses will have arrived at pharmacies and doctor’s offices.
Exception: The CDC says that anyone who recently had COVID-19 can wait three months after recovery before getting vaccinated, until immunity from that infection begins to wane.
Hopkins, who sees patients at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, calls it vital that more young people get vaccinated this year — especially with schools starting as coronavirus levels are high across the country.
“Covid doesn’t kill a lot of kids, thank you, but it kills a lot more kids than the flu,” Hopkins said, adding that teachers also need to get up to speed on the vaccine.
Health authorities say it’s best to get a COVID-19 and flu shot at the same time, a convenience so people don’t have to make two trips.
But while many pharmacies already advertise flu shots, the prime time for this shot tends to be late September through October, just before the flu typically begins its cold-weather surge.
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