FDA Advisors Recommend Updating COVID Booster

Some American adults could get updated COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year, as government advisers voted Tuesday to recommend that it’s time to update booster doses to better accommodate younger variants. recent virus.

Advisors to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) questioned how to modify the doses now, when there is no way of knowing how the changing virus will evolve by the fall, especially considering that the People receiving current booster doses are still strongly protected against severe COVID-19.

In the end, the FDA panel voted 19-2 in favor of booster doses of COVID-19 containing some version of the omicron variant, to be part of a booster campaign planned for the fall.

“If we wait any longer, we will fall behind,” said one of the advisers, Dr. Mark Sawyer, of the University of California, San Diego, campus.

The FDA will have to decide on the exact formulation, but an injection that adds protection against omicron or some of its newer relatives is expected.

“None of us have a crystal ball” for what the next threatening variant will be, said Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s chief vaccine officer.

But “at least we can get the immune system closer to reacting to what’s going around” now, rather than much older virus strains.

It’s unclear who will be offered an upgraded booster. It may be recommended only for older adults or those at higher risk of getting the virus.

However, the FDA is expected to rule on the formula change within a few days, and then Pfizer and Moderna will have to request the authorization of the duly updated doses, which will give the health authorities time to establish the vaccination strategy. end of the year.

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