New updated Covid booster drugs designed to target the BA.5 subvariant of omicron should be available within the next three weeks. This raises an important question: who will be entitled to receive them?
The short answer: Anyone age 12 or older who has completed a primary vaccination series, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells CNBC Make It. It’s unlikely to matter whether or not you’ve had another booster dose before, the spokesman says – but if you’re unvaccinated, you won’t be eligible for the updated formula until you’ve completed a primary series with existing Covid vaccines.
The longer answer is somewhat more complicated because it depends on which booster shots are approved and when.
Pfizer’s “bivalent” shot, which targets both the original type of Covid and the BA.5 subvariant of omicron, is expected to be authorized first. The CDC says it’s likely to come with a broad scope of eligibility: The entire pool of vaccinated Americans age 12 and older.
Moderna’s bivalent shooter is expected to follow suit later, most likely in October. It will come with a somewhat narrower range of eligibility, at least initially: vaccinated people age 18 and older. For both vaccines, younger pediatric age groups may be eligible later, the CDC says.
These predictions are tentative, at least for now. A person familiar with the matter told NBC News on Wednesday that it will depend on how much supply Pfizer and Moderna are able to produce and bring to market by next month. If this supply is limited, vaccines may first be available to those most at risk, such as the elderly and immunocompromised.
Federal health officials believe the vaccines will provide the best level of protection against the highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant to date, especially in the fall and winter when a large wave of Covid infections is expected to hit the US.
“It’s going to be very important for people this fall and winter to get a new vaccine. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid response coordinator, at a virtual event hosted by the US House. Trade Foundation on Tuesday.
Should I get a fourth booster dose now, or wait for the omicron specific injections?
If you haven’t received your second booster yet, Jha’s advice is to get it now instead of waiting for updated boosters. This advice may apply to many people: Among adults 50 and older who are eligible for a second booster shot, only 33.2% received it, according to latest CDC data.
“My overall feeling is, there’s no reason to wait, go get it, even if we’re only a few weeks away,” Jha said at the Chamber event. He added that people growing up now will still be able to get the BA.5 vaccine in a few months, when their immunity from the booster wears off.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s top medical adviser, has also stressed that all Americans should be vaccinated and immunized now if they are not up to date, noting that the nation’s approved vaccines still work remarkably well in preventing serious disease. , hospitalization. and death.
“If [people] don’t get vaccinated or they don’t grow, they’re going to be in trouble,” Fauci told Los Angeles radio station KNX News 97.1 “KNX In Depth” earlier this month.
As for the BA.5 shot, experts are divided on whether you should get it as soon as you’re eligible or wait until cases increase in the fall or winter in an effort to maximize the boost in immunity during those crucial months. .
Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser on President Biden’s Covid response team, wrote in the Twitter thread on Friday that some experts — including Fauci and Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco — support the former approach.
“The other view is the one no one wants to subscribe to,” Slavitt wrote. “It’s that since we don’t know the duration of the increase, why not wait until October?”
“For lower-risk people who want to have 4 months of coverage (a reasonable minimum expectation), some may choose to wait,” Slavitt added.
Register now: Get smarter about your money and your career with our weekly newsletter
Don’t miss:
BA.5 boosters could be here in the next 3 weeks, says Dr. Jha: “These are fundamental improvements in our vaccines”
Dr. Fauci: BA.5-specific boosters are country’s ‘best guess’ to deal with Covid this fall
