More Covid boosters are on the way

Yesterday, the FDA approved a pair of updated vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna specifically tailored to the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron sub-variants. They represent the first updated shots to be authorized in the US.

💉 More deets… The Pfizer/BioNTech booster will be available to Americans 12 and older, while Moderna’s shot was cleared for people aged 18+. Neither will be offered to those who haven’t already received their first doses.

• The FDA approved both shots before human clinical testing was completed, and without the use of an advisory committee – the same approach it takes with flu shots, which are updated annually to keep up with a mutating virus.
• The pharma companies previously ran human clinical trials with a version of their booster that targets BA.1 (an earlier form of omicron), and have tested the BA.4/5 shots in animals; the FDA used this data to approve the vaccines.

👀 Looking ahead… A CDC advisory committee meets today and tomorrow to determine whether to recommend an omicron-specific booster. The agency already recommends two booster shots for Americans aged 50+, as well as vulnerable populations.

📊 Zoom out: Covid death rates across the country are near their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic. On average, about 400 Americans are dying from the disease every day.

• Nearly 95% of the US ages 16-and-up has some form of Covid immunity through a past infection, vaccine, or both, per a CDC analysis of blood donor samples.