The Biden administration’s rollout of a COVID-19 booster plan before the FDA has even approved a booster admittedly is a “judgment call,” U.S. health officials acknowledged Aug. 18. But rather than a judgment call, “the introduction of booster doses should be evidence-driven and targeted to the population groups in greatest need,” the World Health Organization advised in an interim statement issued a week before the White House COVID-19 Response Team’s announcement.
Plans for offering COVID-19 vaccine booster shots in the U.S. took a big step forward Aug. 18, as Health and Human Services (HHS) public health and medical experts laid out their intention to offer booster shots across the country for people 18 and older beginning the week of Sept. 20 and starting eight months after an individual's second dose.
The HHS Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that had mixed opinions in June on the necessity of boosters will have a chance to consider new data when it meets again Aug. 24. Since that June adcom, COVID-19 infection rates have risen steadily and the FDA allowed for a third dose of the mRNA vaccines in certain adults with compromised immune systems.
Pfizer Inc.’s Ticovac has been approved by the FDA for immunizing those ages 1 year and older against tick-borne encephalitis, a disease that’s not endemic to the U.S. but increasingly is found in Europe and Asia. Ticovac, developed with a master seed virus, was first approved outside the U.S. 45 years ago. Before the FDA approval, the CDC had recommended that travelers on their way to high-risk areas be vaccinated in Europe though the process could take up to six months.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) deliberated the matter of third COVID-19 shots, with panel members voting whether to recommend “additional doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as part of a primary [two-shot] series” in certain immunocompromised patients. A work group set up by ACIP decided previously that the desirable consequences outweighed undesirable ones in such a population.
The FDA has made allowances for a third COVID-19 vaccine dose to protect certain adults with compromised immune systems. The amended emergency use authorization amendments allow for booster doses of mRNA vaccines from Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE and Moderna Inc.
According to the White House, the FDA is poised to allow COVID-19 booster shots from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., the two mRNA vaccines, but only for those people with compromised immune systems. The FDA announcement was anticipated to be as early as today, Aug. 12, and the boosters could be available as quickly as this coming weekend.
LONDON – Stopping people under 40 from receiving Astrazeneca plc’s COVID-19 vaccine has put an end to the serious blood-clotting syndrome associated with the product, with no new cases in the U.K. for the past four weeks, according to an expert panel of hematologists.
MRNA’s the thing and special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Environmental Impact Acquisition Corp. is following as it will merge with privately held mRNA-developer Greenlight Biosciences Inc.
Positive phase III top-line results for Valneva SA’s chikungunya virus vaccine candidate, VLA-1553, show the study met its primary endpoint of inducing neutralizing antibody titers, setting it up for possible accelerated approval.
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