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New plans are available for the most recent edition of the Omicron variant. When will you get yours? This is what the experts recommend.
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By Dani Blum
With fall and winter approaching, as well as an expected seasonal buildup in Covid cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has activated a new tool to combat the pandemic: updated booster injections. The Food and Drug Administration legalized the injections last week and they are now available in pharmacies and gyms.
The new vaccines target the subvariant Omicron BA. 5, the dominant editing of the virus. Here’s what you want to know.
The new vaccine is available in online pharmacies and gyms. Many mass vaccination clinics across the country have closed, so you may want to look for a new vaccination site. You can search for a site directory in vacunas. gov.
The FDA has a legal recall of Pfizer-BioNTech for anyone 12 years of age or older who got a first vaccine or booster at least two months ago. Adults 18 years of age or older can get the Moderna vaccine if at least two months have passed since their last vaccine. The C. D. C. the same eligibility rules as the F. D. A.
Beyond the difference in age criteria, there is no practical difference between the injections, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. logo that is,” he said.
The new booster is a bivalent vaccine, meaning it targets two editions of the coronavirus: the original strain and the subvariants Omicron BA. 4 and BA. 5. The previous booster injection only for the original edition of the virus.
The new vaccines are now the only boosters available to others 12 years of age and older. The F. D. A. no longer allows missed booster doses for other people in approved age groups. People who have not received their first doses of the vaccine will continue to receive the original vaccines that were rolled out in late 2020.
The FDA has updated legal boosters for other people who were at least two months away from receiving the last vaccine (either the original vaccine or a booster), but you may need to wait longer. An advisory committee of the C. D. C. voted to propose the same period between doses, several members expressed fear that two months would be too short.
Doctors and immunologists have said that, in general, other people wait 4 to 6 months after vaccination or infection.
That’s because its structure probably wouldn’t generate a big immune reaction so soon after a previous encounter with the virus, said Aubree Gordon, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan. to neutralize without delay the antigen being produced; in a way, you’re reaching a ceiling,” he said. “You don’t have much else ahead of you.
Once you’ve earned the booster, it takes one to two weeks after getting the vaccine for your antibodies to “come into play,” Dr. Gordon said.
Children under the age of 12 get the new booster lately. Children between the ages of five and 11 will get the past reminder; The CDC recommends that they be vaccinated five months after the current dose. Children under the age of five are not eligible for booster injections.
The FDA is applying to make the new recall available to children under the age of 12, Dr. Asish Jha, the White House coronavirus reaction coordinator, said at a news conference.
“When the FDA authorizes those vaccines and age groups, cdc will expand its recommendations accordingly,” a CDC said. the spokesperson said in an email.
The booster shots are for pregnant women, Dr. Chin-Hong said, and as with previous vaccines, scientists hope that antibodies generated by a pregnant user can be transferred to the newborn.
Previous booster injections offered physically powerful coverage against serious illness. However, there were other people who had infections passed on even after receiving reminders, President Biden added.
Doctors hope the new edition of the recalls will offer more coverage rather than advanced infections, but they may not be bulletproof. “It’s not a game-changer,” said Shane Crotty, a virologist at La Jolla Institute of Immunology. But it will get better. “
There is still no genuine knowledge about the functionality of these bivalent vaccines in humans. Infectious disease experts compared the procedure for creating new boosters to that of the annual flu vaccine, which is updated annually and most commonly tested on animals, not humans.
“I’m not worried at all,” Dr. Chin-Hong said. They don’t use any new ingredients. It’s like you’re still making brownies: you’re still chocolate, sugar, flour. Maybe now you use more chocolate.
It is not known if this will be the last Covid booster to be offered, or if there will be new normal reinforcements. It is possible that the U. S. The U. S. Government only offers the vaccine every year around the fall, like the flu shot, if viral outbreaks are predictable, Dr. Chin-Hong said.
But the trajectory of the pandemic has been simple, and it’s hard to expect the state of the virus in the coming months, let alone the next few years. If the virus hadn’t evolved, we probably wouldn’t want new vaccines now, Dr. Crotty said, adding, “It’s for the virus. “
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