FDA Proposes Annual Coronavirus Vaccine, Mimicking Flu Model

Covid, flu, RSV decrease in hospitals as ‘tripdemic’ risk fades

The FDA’s proposal represents a shift from its strategy of pushing boosters to counter risk variants, an effort that has met resistance from the public, which has shown little interest in receiving repeat injections. The new plan for an annual dose of coverage has prompted conflicting comments. Reactions

Robert M. Wachter, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said the FDA’s proposed technique “seems reasonable,” a step that could “save many lives” by simplifying the confusing nutrition that could deter others from getting vaccinated.

Others said coronavirus vaccines didn’t have enough durability for other people for a year.

Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, called the concept of an annual vaccine “a flawed approach” and said there is no knowledge about the concept that a vaccine provides coverage beyond 4 to six months. Topol said other people who never have if covid-19 could be in danger because they wouldn’t have a reservoir of naturally generated disease antibodies to take advantage of.

The FDA said Monday that annual formulations of coronavirus vaccines would be selected each June, in time to be manufactured and administered through September as part of an annual vaccination campaign. winter, when other people are indoors and coronavirus cases usually increase. The approach suggests detecting that the virus is endemic, a part of the U. S. physical care scene. That will be repeated year after year.

If there was an emergency, the emergence of a more harmful variant capable of evading vaccine immunity, the FDA would convene an impromptu assembly of its vaccine advisers and choose a new strain to counter the threat, the firm said.

While most people would receive an annual shot, other older, very young or immunocompromised people, or who have serious health problems, may need two doses, according to the FDA briefing.

For the past 3 years, the FDA has struggled to keep up with the evolution of the virus. Last year, the company legalized an updated bivalent vaccine that targeted the original strain of the virus, as well as the omicron subvariants BA. 4 and BA. 5. But during the time the booster was released, some other variant was rapidly emerging.

In addition, vaccine uptake has been low, even among older adults who are the most vulnerable. Fewer than 40 percent of others age 65 and older received the updated vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of public fitness at Georgetown Law, said the FDA’s proposed policy would likely work well for younger, fitter people, but not so well for older people, who might want more vaccines.

“I think I would transition for healthy young Americans and continue with reinforcements for the elderly,” Gostin said.

The FDA, according to the document, is also seeking committee approval to recall the original vaccination formula that entered the market in late 2020, the monovalent edition targeting the original virus. This means that in the future, most people will get a vaccine. Single bivalent injection of a main series of two injections and boosters. The bivalent vaccine would be used until a new strain is selected.

“This simplification of vaccine composition is expected to complicate, minimize vaccine management errors due to the complexity of the number of other vial shipments, and potentially increase vaccine compliance by allowing for clearer communication,” the FDA said.

Scientists say they have learned that vaccines offer the most effective coverage against the virus for the first 3 to 4 months after the injection. For a few months after that, the injections are still protective against serious illness, but then the coverage decreases. The hope is that the lowest point of coverage will occur in the summer, when coronavirus outbreaks tend to be less severe.

The fact that many Americans have become inflamed with the virus provides greater protection, scientists say.

The FDA has been criticized by some doctors, adding members of its vaccine advisory committee, for pushing for the widespread use of variant-specific boosters to protect against covid-19. Paul A. Offit, panel member and vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. , he wrote recently in the New England Journal of Medicine that it is futile to try to “prevent all symptomatic infections in other healthy young people by stimulating them” with vaccines containing mRNA from strains that may disappear a few months later.

Offit said those retreats will be reserved for the elderly, or those who are immunocompromised or have multiple medical conditions.

Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor School of Medicine in Houston, said in an interview that he disagrees, adding that he’s not sure an annual style of flu works for the coronavirus, in part because mRNA vaccines don’t. T. T last a total year and because you have to know more about the variants.

“There would probably be too many unknowns,” he said.

Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the department of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, said the FDA’s proposal for an annual coronavirus vaccine is based on a “good goal,” but it’s not transparent how the course of a virus that has been so wildly unexpected is expected.

Amesh Adalja, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, criticized the FDA’s strategy, saying the company uses a “one length for all” style that it wants to adjust to reflect the fact that other people want more reminders. often than others. He said the FDA adopts a risk-based approach based on other people’s expressed risks.

“Accuracy makes sense,” Adalja said. It has to be individualized. “

Vaccines: The CDC recommends that anyone over the age of five get an updated COVID-19 booster shot. New federal data shows that adults who have received updated vaccines reduce their risk of being hospitalized with covid-19 by up to 50%. Here are some tips on when to get the omicron booster and how the effectiveness of the vaccine would possibly be affected by your past infections.

New covid variant: The XBB. 1. 5 variant is a highly transmissible descendant of omicron that is now estimated to cause a portion of all new infections in the country. We’ve answered a few questions about bivalent booster injections.

Tips: The CDC’s advice lines have been confusing — if you turn covid, here’s how you can tell when you’re no longer contagious. We have also created an advisor to help you continue to wear face coverings.

Where are the things? Check out the latest coronavirus numbers in the U. S. And around the world. In the U. S. In the US, pandemic trends have replaced and whites are now more likely to die from covid than blacks. Nearly nine out of 10 covid deaths are in other people over the age of 65

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