The CDC approved numerous FDA-approved changes on Wednesday. Seniors can now receive a COVID-19 booster vaccine.
The CDC’s action removes the final impediment for eligible Americans to receive a second round of the booster shots introduced last year by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which had been updated with a bivalent recipe for the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of Omicron.
COVID-19 Booster Shots Alignment
The majority of Americans who received one of these updated boosters last year will not need another one until this fall and winter, according to officials.
However, older adults, age 65 and older, can now receive a second bivalent vaccination if at least four months have passed since their last dose. People with weakened immune systems can receive additional doses as soon as two months after their last bivalent vaccination.
The new round of vaccinations is part of a comprehensive set of revisions enacted by the Biden administration to streamline the plethora of immunization schedules that had been established for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, bringing them closer to the annual flu shot.
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XBB.1.16 Variant and its Potential Implications
The FDA and CDC have taken these steps in advance of crucial decisions expected next month regarding which variants the bivalent vaccines should be updated to target for the upcoming season. This would give businesses just enough time to increase revision production before fall and winter.
Similar to the annual process for coordinating updates to seasonal flu vaccines around the world, a panel of World Health Organization scientists has already announced their intention to evaluate revisions next month.
Currently, XBB.1.5 variant, a descendant of two Omicron strains, is responsible for the majority of infections in the United States, according to the CDC. In comparison to earlier Omicron variants, XBB.1.5 did not appear to cause more severe disease or reduced vaccine efficacy during the winter.
A handful of new sibling climbers are being tracked across the nation. XBB.1.16 accounts for 7.2% of all new infections nationwide. This strain has a mutation that may result in increased infectiousness and disease, but authorities believe it is very similar to earlier variants.
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