The agency did not choose to target the shots at specific high-risk populations as some experts have suggested, and other countries have recommended. The shots are part of a push by public health officials to align the next COVID vaccines more closely with the actual circulating variant of the virus, much as annual flu shots are designed.
Tag Archive for: Covid-19
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel is due on Tuesday to recommend whether the updated COVID-19 shots formulated by vaccine manufacturers should be given broadly or just to specific populations at higher risk during this fall’s vaccination campaign.
Pfizer and Moderna said their updated vaccines, which target the XBB.1.5 subvariant of the virus, were expected to be available for most people in the United States in the coming days. The FDA approved those shots for people ages 12 and above, and authorized them for emergency use in children ages 6 months through 11 years.
This season’s campaign focuses primarily on pregnant people and children because of concerning drops in coverage among those groups in recent years.
Today the company said clinical trial data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine will likely be effective against the highly-mutated BA.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus that has raised fears of a resurgence of infections.
Canada has detected its first case of coronavirus infection from the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant of Omicron in a person in British Columbia who had not traveled outside the Pacific province, health officials said on Tuesday.
A highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86 has now been detected in Switzerland and South Africa in addition to Israel, Denmark, the U.S. and the U.K., according to a leading World Health Organization official.
The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it has seized over $1.4 billion in COVID-19 relief funds that criminals had stolen, and charged over 3,000 defendants with crimes in federal districts across the country.
The companies contend that their updated COVID-19 vaccines for the fall vaccination season can elicit strong immune responses against the virus’ currently dominant and emerging subvariants.
It’s summer 2023. By now, many of us have “emerged”, as they say. We are getting out and about and making up for the lost time of the past three years. And much of this progress is thanks to the COVID-19 vaccines and treatments from Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna, which played a major role in helping us put the pandemic in the rearview mirror.
