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Many older Americans, as well as those living in nursing homes, don’t get boosters.
By Benjamin Mueller and Noah Weiland
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the newest list of annual Covid vaccines, clearing the way for Americans 6 months and older to get updated vaccines amid a prolonged surge of the virus in the summer.
Pfizer and Moderna, the vaccine makers, are expected to begin shipping vaccines to pharmacies and doctors’ offices within days. The shots are tailored to an edition of the virus that took off this spring before giving way to very similar variants. all of which appear to be spreading more rapidly.
For the most fragile Americans, who are dying from Covid in increasing numbers this summer, vaccines may simply be offering a respite from a virus that disproportionately endangers those whose vaccines are outdated.
But the approval comes months after new smart variants began generating infections, which has caused consternation for some scientists who have called for faster turnaround times for updated vaccines.
In recent weeks, the number of people hospitalized with Covid has been almost twice as high as the same period last summer. At the end of July, Covid killed about six hundred Americans each week, a very significant drop from this winter but twice as many as this spring.
The availability of boosters has not translated into actual vaccines. In the spring, only one in five adults had received last year’s updated Covid vaccine. Even older Americans, who are at much higher risk of becoming seriously ill, have largely rejected vaccines, with only 40% of people 75 and older getting vaccinated last year.
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