September 1, 2022 – In the first step toward the national rollout of omicron-updated COVID-19 vaccines, the FDA has authorized Pfizer’s and Moderna’s candidates for emergency use. The CDC will meet to deliberate on the decision and the vaccines could be ready after Labor Day weekend.
Pfizer’s candidate, which showed a 9.1-times better response than its predecessor, is authorized for people 12 and older. Moderna’s new booster, which is nearly twice as effective as its original formula, is authorized for adults 19 and older.
“As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, said in a statement.
The release date for the bivalent shots, which target the original strain and the omicron variant, has been delayed twice. In June, when the federal government instructed vaccine makers to tweak their product to better protect against omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the proposed deadline was October. Shortly after that, BA.5 dominated more than 90 percent of COVID-19 cases, pushing the deadline to mid-September.