Current COVID-19 vaccines are not well-matched against the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on April 6, as its panel of outside experts meets to discuss changes to future booster doses.

A fourth dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine lowered rates of COVID-19 among the elderly but the protection against infection appeared short-lived, a large study in Israel found.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s expert advisers will discuss the timing of additional COVID-19 vaccine boosters and the people eligible for the extra shots in a meeting later this week, the health agency said on April 4.

Children ages 5 to 11 who received the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine were 68% less likely to be hospitalized during the Omicron wave in the United States than unvaccinated children, according to a study published on March 30.

The Biden administration on Wednesday launched a new website to provide a clearinghouse of information on COVID-19 as part of a continuing effort to prepare Americans to live with the coronavirus.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will weigh the benefits of authorizing a round of boosters of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to a broader population in the fall, a top official said on March 29.

Without holding a meeting of its vaccines advisory committee, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized a fourth shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for everyone 50 years of age and older. 

Senior citizens who received a second booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination had a 78 percent lower mortality rate from the disease than those who got one only, a study from Israel showed on March 27.

Moderna reported positive interim results from the Phase II/III KidCOVE trial of the company’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for children six months to under two years and also two to six years of age.

The U.S. drug regulator said on March 21 a panel of independent advisers will meet on April 6 to discuss considerations for use of COVID-19 vaccine booster doses.