The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed approaching COVID-19 vaccines just like the annual flu shot many Americans receive with a view to protect against mutations of the virus.
The proposal goals to simplify future vaccination efforts. Under this strategy, most adults and kids would get a once-a-year shot to guard against the mutating virus. They’d not must keep track of what number of shots they’ve received or many months it’s been since their last booster.
In documents posted online, FDA scientists say many Americans now have “sufficient preexisting immunity” against the coronavirus due to vaccination, infection, or a mix of the 2.
That baseline of protection must be enough, the agency says, to maneuver to an annual booster against the most recent strains in circulation and make COVID-19 vaccinations more just like the yearly flu shot.
The FDA may even ask its panel to vote on whether all vaccines should goal the identical strains. That step can be needed to make the shots interchangeable, putting off the present complicated system of primary vaccinations and boosters.
The initial shots from Pfizer and Moderna goal the strain of the virus that first emerged in 2020 and swept the globe. The updated boosters launched last fall were also tweaked to focus on omicron relatives that had been dominant.
Under FDA’s proposal, the agency, independent experts and manufacturers would determine annually on which strains to focus on by the early summer, allowing several months to supply and launch updated shots before the autumn. That’s roughly the identical approach long used to pick the strains for the annual flu shot.
Greater than 80% of the U.S. population has had not less than one vaccine dose but only 16% of those eligible have received the most recent boosters authorized in August.
Ultimately, FDA officials say moving to an annual schedule would make it easier to advertise future vaccination campaigns, which could ultimately boost vaccination rates nationwide.
The FDA will ask its panel of outdoor vaccine experts to weigh in at a gathering later this week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.