The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it has greenlighted updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for the 2024 fall season. The decision clears the way for distribution to begin for the latest version of the shots earlier this year than last year.
Moderna and Pfizer’s shots were revised this year to target the KP.2 variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as part of a now-annual process undertaken by the FDA and health authorities around the world to update the vaccines to protect against newer strains of the virus.
“Given waning immunity of the population from previous exposure to the virus and from prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants,” said Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Similar to previous seasons, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that all Americans ages 6 months and older get a shot of the “updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine” to protect against another expected surge of the virus this fall and winter.
In a presentation to the American Medical Association earlier this month, CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen recommended starting to administer COVID-19 shots this year as soon they are available.
“Then the administration should continue through September, October, November, those are the months you really want to be paying attention to,” she said.
Both Moderna and Pfizer say they expect the first shots from their vaccines to become available in the coming days around the country. Another updated vaccine from Novavax is also expected to get the FDA’s authorization this year.
“FDA has committed to moving swiftly on regulatory authorization. We expect to have authorization in time for peak vaccination season,” Novavax said in a statement.
It’s been quite a busy summer for COVID – just anecdotally, I know lots of people who’ve had it recently, and I’ve seen many more postings on social media or other announcements as well. The good news is that while infections are up, hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively low. Make no mistake, a lot of people are still dying from COVID, but far fewer than in the early days, before the first vaccines and their widespread acceptance, and the hospitals are able to keep up.
I’m getting uncomfortably close to the point at which my age becomes a COVID risk factor, and we’re planning to travel to see family over the holidays, so you better believe we’ll be getting our latest boosters. I was asked if I wanted to get a flu shot the other day when picking up a prescription at CVS. I’ll be double-dipping the next time I’m there. Here’s some useful guidance to help you make your plan for a shot. Don’t miss out.
I would be scheduling right away if I had just contracted covid a month ago.
As is i’ll give it a few months rest and then schedule mine.
reminder: end of September, free tests in the mail again