IIn two votes, each vote 13-1, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Immunization Committee recommended that Americans receive Omicron booster COVID-19 vaccine dose. After a day-long discussion of available data on Sept. 1, the panel recommended boosters from two manufacturers – Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both of which make mRNA-based vaccines. The new booster made by Pfizer-BioNTech is for people age 12 or older, and the Moderna shot is for adults age 18 and older. The group also advised people to wait at least two months after their previous dose before getting one of the two new booster shots. Within hours of the vote, the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Wallinsky, on the committee’s advice to recommend a new booster.
In a statement announcing its decision, it said Omicron boosters could “help restore protection that has diminished since the previous vaccination and that is designed to provide broader protection against new variants.” This recommendation came after a thorough scientific evaluation and vigorous scientific discussion. If you qualify, there is no bad time to get a COVID-19 booster and I highly encourage you to get one.”
The CDC guidance comes a day after the release of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Omicron footage from both companies.
The booster is the first to target a different type of SARS-CoV-2 virus. All vaccines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to date, in addition to the boosters doses authorized by the agencies, have targeted the original virus that emerged in 2019. It targets the latest Omicron BA booster. .4 and BA. 5 virus subvariants, which now account for nearly all new COVID-19 infections in the US
The Omicron BA.4/5 booster represents a fundamental change in the way health officials hope to protect the public. Instead of recommending booster doses every few months, as they have advised since vaccines became available in late 2020, they are now hoping to switch to a flu-mimicking immunization schedule, with an annual dose. The new Omicron booster will replace the current boosters of the original COVID-19 vaccine. All people 12 years of age or older will be eligible to receive one, regardless of how many previous booster potions they have received so far.
In recommending the booster, the CDC panel of independent vaccine experts acknowledged that although they had approved boosters before, this differed in a number of respects. Not only is it the first to target a different type of virus, but it is also the first to contain genetic material against two copies of the virus — the original strain, or ancestral strain, Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, in the following—called a bivalent vaccine. In the case of both Pfizer-Biwantech And the Moderna The enhancer, dose is the same as the previous enhancers that have been authorized, but split between the two original strains and Omicron BA.4/5.
Perhaps most worrisome to panelists, the boosters from the two companies have yet to be tested on people, meaning there is no direct evidence that the shots will actually protect people from becoming seriously ill from COVID-19. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have developed Omicron boosters after FDA expert team met in June It asked vaccine manufacturers to target the BA.4 and BA.5 sub variants. The companies developed a booster combining the original strain with an earlier version of Omicron, BA.1, and was shown to help boost levels of anti-virus antibodies against Omicron. But given that BA.4 and BA.5 rapidly outperformed BA.1 in causing infection, the Food and Drug Administration ordered a bivalent vaccine including BA.4 and BA.5. Both companies submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration in August from animal studies that showed their boosters raised antibody levels in mice.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientists stress that animal data is sufficient to recommend the latest booster, given the body of evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of previous versions of vaccines to date. They point to real-world data that includes millions of people vaccinated and boosted up to twice as much with the original vaccine, as well as data about the BA.1 bivalent booster that was never brought to market. Doran Fink, deputy clinical director of the FDA’s Division of Vaccines and Related Product Applications, opened the discussion by telling members that “the FDA in its mandate considered the entirety of the evidence, consisting primarily of an extrapolated approach based on data from clinical trials with two-vaccine formulations. Similar valency consisting of the original sub-lineage component and Omicron BA.1, as well as extensive experience using the original monovalent vaccine as a primary series and as boosters.In addition, the Food and Drug Administration considered supporting data from some animal studies that provided further Reassurance about our inductive approach.”
This is a different approach from the one you followed United kingdom And the Canadian Health authorities, who decided to approve the bivalent enhancer made by Moderna against the BA.1 variant.
This leaves some public health experts in the United States concerned about recommending the use of the enhanced Omicron BA.4/BA.5. Dr. Pablo Sanchez, professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University and the only opponent to vote against Omicron’s new supportive recommendation, said: “I feel like we really need human data. It’s a new vaccine, a new platform, and there’s a lot of hesitation in the vaccine already, so we need to.” into human data. I really feel this is premature and I wish we had seen that human data.”
However, Sanchez acknowledged that he would still likely get the booster, because he was convinced by the FDA’s argument that the available evidence, even if indirect, suggested that the new shot was safe and effective. There’s also the fact that every year, an annual flu vaccine is approved without data to prove it’s effective against the latest circulating flu strains, making immunization a bit of a gamble, albeit a calculated one. “I would like to remind the committee that each year, we recommend influenza vaccines based on new strains without clinical studies,” said Dr. Melinda Wharton, of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and executive secretary of the CDC. “In many ways, this is similar to that.”
In favor of recommending a change in the booster, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers documented that people immunized with the original vaccine and boosters had diminished, and in some cases very little, protection from infection with Omicron BA./BA.5. While the original vaccines and boosters protect people from getting sick enough to need hospital treatment, this protection appears to be diminished, as fully immunized people develop mild disease after infection with BA.4/BA.5. Modeling provided by CDC scientists also showed that if health authorities waited a few more months, until November, for human studies on the BA.4/5 booster to be completed, about 137,000 people would be hospitalized and nearly 10,000 people would die of COVID-19. 19.
That’s why the government is pushing to allow new boosters, but it’s not clear if the public will follow the advice of health officials and rush to get boosters – especially in an environment where people are tired of frequent boosters and increasingly skeptical about their effectiveness. As more people become infected with the highly contagious Omicron BA.4/5 variant, they believe their immunity to disease outweighs the need for a boost. And some health officials aren’t convinced that a BA.4/5 booster provides additional protection from disease than the original vaccine, which becomes even more suspicious when it comes to vaccinated and booster people who have recently been vaccinated. Omicron BA.4/5 has also been infected by many Americans recently. Paul Offit, a professor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccine Expert Committee, doesn’t feel there’s enough data to support recommending the new booster, and he likely won’t line up for this shot. “The authorization and recommendation by the CDC does not change the data, which is alarmingly scarce,” he told Time magazine. “We still don’t have human data on this vaccine. I don’t plan to get this vaccine, mostly because I don’t think I need it. I’ve had three previous doses and one mild natural infection.”
Some of the data submitted to CDC committee members addressed this question of how much additional benefit most people, who are vaccinated and boosted, would get from an Omicron booster. While it is biologically logical to match the booster vaccine to the circulating virus, which is currently the Omicron variant BA.4/5, studies are not yet complete. Early data in animals is encouraging, suggesting that boosting with the shot for Omicron may help people build broader immunity not only to the original strain but also to multiple variants, including Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron, but the mouse data could’ It doesn’t substitute for human experiences.
The two companies are conducting human studies and expect to have this information within a few months, but in the meantime, people will have to make their own decisions about how comfortable they are with getting the latest booster dose. “I think this is a huge step forward toward simplification,” Wharton told the committee. “I hope we can move towards something simpler that will not require such frequent changes to move forward. We are clearly not there yet, but I think this is a huge step forward.”
The US government has already purchased 170 million doses of the Omicron BA.4/5 booster from the two companies, and Pfizer-BioNTech has shipped 100,000 doses to 62 sites that arrived on Sept. It expects to deliver 3 million doses to over 3,000 sites. Moderna is manufacturing 66 million doses to meet government demand, but it hasn’t said how many doses have shipped yet.
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