This fall, vaccine makers will begin rolling out coronavirus booster vaccines tailored to fight the current phase of the pandemic.
Two days after outside experts voted in favor of a new vaccine adapted to protect against the omicron variant, the Food and Drug Administration announced that the fall shots would include a component from BA.4 and BA.5, the omicron subvariants gaining ground in the United States.
The change shows the FDA trying to be more nimble in efforts to keep up with a changing virus. The precise formula has not been tested in people yet, but studies showed that vaccines tuned to fight a previous version of omicron modestly increased the short-term immune response in people compared with more shots of the original. The agency will depend in part on that data as it reviews the new vaccines.
It is quite possible that BA.4 and BA.5 will be eclipsed by new variants by the fall, but the hope is that a new shot will help broaden immunity, since they are closer to where the virus is today.
For a year and a half, coronavirus vaccines based on the original version of the virus have provided robust protection, particularly against severe illness. But immunity tapers off over time, and the virus has proved wily, spawning a growing Greek alphabet of new variants that are more contagious and deft at slipping by people’s immune defenses.
“As we move into the fall and winter, it is critical that we have safe and effective vaccine boosters that can provide protection against circulating and emerging variants to prevent the most severe consequences of covid-19,” the FDA statement said.
People who are unvaccinated or unboosted should not put off vaccination, particularly given the high levels of transmission, said an FDA official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. People will still potentially be eligible for the booster in the fall, and all the vaccines are best at protecting against severe illness and hospitalization.
The federal government announced Thursday that it had agreed to purchase 105 million doses of Pfizer’s rebooted vaccine for $3.2 billion. At $30.50 a dose, that’s a premium over the initial contracts the government made for the original vaccine in 2020, when the vaccines were $19.50 per dose.
Pfizer has said that the price of its vaccine will probably rise after the pandemic, and this may not be the ceiling.
“We expect this is just the second pricing step up between pandemic pricing and future commercial pricing,” SVB Securities Research analysts wrote in a note analyzing the announcement.
Moderna President Stephen Hoge told an FDA advisory committee that his company would take until late October or early November to create a vaccine based on the BA.4 and BA.5 versions of omicron. It was unclear Thursday what the company’s timeline would be to supply revamped doses to the United States.
(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Carolyn Y. Johnson
Pro-Vaccine Masses Who Survived COVID Injections Targeted for Monkeypox Vaccines followed by targeting for Omicron as Depopulation Plans Advance
With the carnage that has just occurred for the past 18 months where 7,478,300 people were killed and 583,023,500 people were injured by experimental COVID shots in the U.S. and Europe, who in the world would fall for the lies of Big Pharma and their crony politicians again, and sign up to get these shots?
Certainly not the anti-vaxxers, and certainly not those who were foolish enough to get the COVID shots, were injured by them, and then woke up to the fact that they were lied to and hence suffered tremendously.
No, these shots are obviously targeting those who survived the COVID shots, believed the shots somehow conferred benefit on them since they are still alive and breathing, and trust the medical tyrants to cure their fear of the fake monkeypox pandemic which has not even really started yet.
They’ve scheduled more infection panic to boost sales.
First things first. We must close and lockdown every Yeshiva and Shul! We must close all summer camps. Only supermarkets, stadiums, and pride parade can remain open. Covid doesn’t spread there. Vinishmartem!