Today, we approved and granted emergency use authorization for updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (2024-2025 formula) to include a monovalent (single) component that corresponds to the Omicron variant KP.2 strain of SARS-CoV-2. https://t.co/pul33IEnIw
The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have… pic.twitter.com/HkZlPX8jwW
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 22, 2024
We’ve all been waiting for this upgrade. Shots should be available as soon as next week:
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved and granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (2024-2025 formula) to include a monovalent (single) component that corresponds to the Omicron variant KP.2 strain of SARS-CoV-2. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been updated with this formula to more closely target currently circulating variants and provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death. Today’s actions relate to updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by ModernaTX Inc. and Pfizer Inc.
In early June, the FDA advised manufacturers of licensed and authorized COVID-19 vaccines that the COVID-19 vaccines (2024-2025 formula) should be monovalent JN.1 vaccines. Based on the further evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and a rise in cases of COVID-19, the agency subsequently determined and advised manufacturers that the preferred JN.1-lineage for the COVID-19 vaccines (2024-2025 formula) is the KP.2 strain, if feasible.…
Per the Washington Post, “New coronavirus vaccines are now approved. Here’s what to know” [gift link]:
The Food and Drug Administration approved new mRNA coronavirus vaccines Thursday, clearing the way for shots manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to start hitting pharmacy shelves and doctor’s offices within a week…
The FDA has yet to approve an updated vaccine from Novavax, which uses a more conventional vaccine development method but has faced financial challenges.
Our scientific understanding of coronavirus vaccines has evolved since they debuted in late 2020. Here’s what to know about the new vaccines:
Why are there new vaccines?
The coronavirus keeps evolving to overcome our immune defenses, and the shield offered by vaccines weakens over time. That’s why federal health officials want people to get an annual updated coronavirus vaccine designed to target the latest variants. They approve them for release in late summer or early fall to coincide with flu shots that Americans are already used to getting…
Who needs a new coronavirus vaccine?
The United States differs from other countries in recommending an updated coronavirus vaccine for everyone except young infants, rather than just those at heightened risk for severe disease because they are 65 or older, are moderately to severely immunocompromised or have serious medical conditions…
How long does vaccine protection last?
CDC data shows that the effectiveness of the 2023-2024 vaccine, meant to reduce emergency room visits and hospitalizations, declined sharply more than four months after receiving it. But the risk of hospitalization still remains low for most people, which made it harder for the CDC to compare outcomes for people who received an updated shot with those who did not…
Do vaccines prevent long covid?
While the threat of acute serious respiratory covid disease has faded, developing the lingering symptoms of “long covid” remains a concern for people who have had even mild cases. The CDC says vaccination is the “best available tool” to reduce the risk of long covid in children and adults. The exact mechanism is unclear, but experts theorize that vaccines help by reducing the severity of illness, which is a major risk factor for long covid.
When is the best time to get a new coronavirus vaccine?
It depends on your circumstances, including risk factors for severe disease, when you were last infected or vaccinated, and plans for the months ahead. It’s best to talk these issues through with a doctor.If you are at high risk and have not recently been vaccinated or infected, you may want to get a shot as soon as possible while cases remain high. The summer wave has shown signs of peaking, but cases can still be elevated and take weeks to return to low levels. It’s hard to predict when a winter wave will begin.
If your priority is to avoid getting sick ahead of the holidays or a major event such as an international vacation, you could get your vaccine a month ahead of the event to increase your protection.
If you were recently vaccinated, the FDA advises waiting two months since your last shot to get the updated vaccine. The CDC has previously said people can wait three months after an infection to get vaccinated.
Manisha Juthani, Connecticut’s public health commissioner, said people who have recently had covid could time their next vaccine several weeks before a holiday when they will be exposed to a lot of people, whether that’s Halloween, Thanksgiving or end-of-year celebrations.
Where do I find vaccines?
Coronavirus vaccines are sold as a commercial product and are no longer purchased and distributed by the federal government for free. That means they won’t be as readily accessible as they once were, but they shouldn’t be too hard to find.CVS said its expects to start administering them within days, and Walgreens said that it would start scheduling appointments to receive shots after Sept. 6 and that customers can walk in before then…
The CDC plans to relaunch its vaccine locator when the new vaccines are widely available, and similar services are offered by Moderna and Pfizer…
OzarkHillbilly
Glad to hear this. I’ll get it in Oct.
narya
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that’s my plan, too: I got the last booster in April, I think, so I could get it now, but I’d rather wait a bit so that I’m better-protected when all of us have to go indoors for everything.
Anonymous At Work
Prepping the whinier of my relatives for a few days of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariots” and incessant complaints. I usually have one day of “Someone gave me decaf” symptoms and attitude. But hopefully this’ll be good news for winter months and travel.
Josie
Good news. Just in time to get along with the flu shot. I like to plan my one day misery for an all in one experience.
Quicksand
Always interesting to see the strategy involved in developing these mRNA vaccines. I’m surprised that this a monovalent KP.2-targeting vaccine, but I guess KP.2 and KP.3 are extremely prevalent and this vaccine should do a decent job of targeting both of them and others that are currently circulating.
Kosh III
Good news, will visit Kroger Pharm when it’s available.
NorthLeft
Thanks for the update. Up here in Canada I expect we will be at least a few weeks behind you on approving and then distributing the vaccines.
However, my wife and I just returned from two weeks in London England visiting our eldest daughter and we are now no longer NOVIDs, ending our four and a half year run.
We brought N95 masks but rarely wore them. That was a conscious decision by us. My wife figured we caught it on one of the last couple of days or the flight home. Lots of people everywhere we went on buses, the tube, trains, three different airports, and our flights back to Toronto.
Just feels like a cold right now. Not even a bad one.
So I guess we’ll be waiting three months for our next shot.
M31
already signed up at cvs for end of next week, woo hoo
school/teaching is starting up and I’ll be exposed to viruses from all over the world, lol
Matt McIrvin
This is a tough one. In both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 cycles, I got my booster early in the fall but caught COVID later in the winter wave (late January and late December 2023), once the infection protection wore off. Maybe I got it too early. On the other hand, maybe it did its job since I didn’t get all that sick either time.
FDRLincoln
My most recent bout of Covid was in late June, so my plan is to get the vaccine update in early October.
I’ve had Covid three times that I know of:
May 2020….I was very sick for two months and weak for two months after that.
July 2022….not too bad, sick for a couple of days, weak for about a week afterward
June 2024….felt bad for one day, got over it quickly.
I am fully vaccinated and get the new boosters when they become available
The vaccines work. The only downside to them is that the strong protection only seems to last about 5 months. I’d get a booster shot every 6 months if I could, but I’m not quite old enough and the pharmacy always says no when I ask. Maybe I can convince my doctor to authorize it.
Mousebumples
PBM PSA – I haven’t seen Moderna or Pfizer launch on our drug files yet. I can’t speak for other PBMs, but based on our operational processes, this means they won’t adjudicate until after Labor Day. (our files load weekly, and items from Friday are loaded the following week)
I have no idea what this means for costs at the pharmacy, but FYI if things aren’t working as you want.
Any idea if Not Covered $0 cards are still available?
Matt McIrvin
@FDRLincoln: The trouble is that while COVID clearly has a seasonal aspect, it’s not “seasonal” like flu in the sense of disappearing entirely in the summer. I wish I could get boosted twice a year too, but they won’t let me.
Ohio Mom
Put me down for October as well.
I’ve lost tracked of how many boosters I’ve had, which makes me proud of myself.
opiejeanne
Great news! Costco has been our place to get the vaccines as well as the flu shot.
We missed the booster in the spring, just kept putting it off, and we’ve been lucky not getting sick. Our contractor working on the bathroom had it and was miserable for a week, and probably took some woowoo stuff instead of Paxlovid, then tried to tell me he took Paxlovid last year to avoid catching Covid. Uh, no. But he managed to not give it to us and we will get the new shots ASAP.
Had it once, in the spring of 2022. Almost certainly caught it on the train coming back from Chicago when almost no one was masked. For me it was like the worst case of flu imaginable but we didn’t need to go to the hospital, and I credit the vaccines and the Paxlovid for that.
TBone
This is the only time you’ll ever hear me say I’m grateful for CVS and its proliferation to every street corner in the USA.
Back when the vaccine boosters were still federally funded and doctor’s offices were administering them here, I was searching for a new G.P. I didn’t know that my ONE appointment at a different facility (didn’t even get to see a doctor, I saw a Nurse Practitioner) would be immediately reported to my existing G.P. who promptly dumped me! The Nurse Practitioner at the new place informed me “we don’t give vaccines here.”
WTAF
opiejeanne
@Ohio Mom: Yeah, I’ve forgotten how many we’ve had, stopped counting after the 5th shot, but that very first vaccine felt like our lives had been saved. People cried, I nearly cried with relief. Funny thing, I’ve never really felt the shots except for one ineptly administered at a grocery store pharmacy.
TBone
@M31: yay!!!
opiejeanne
@TBone: Yes, our doctor’s office doesn’t give vaccines either, which is kind of strange. They’re not anti-vax, they just don’t offer them. They send us to a pharmacy.
TBone
@opiejeanne: it was a huge, red flag for me when I heard it in the office, and I still don’t have a new General Practitioner. Preventative medicine is IMPORTANT you absolute dolts!
twbrandt
CVS here in Michigan are scheduling new COVID vaccinations beginning next week. I schedded mine for August 28.
TBone
@twbrandt: awesome!
Scout211
@opiejeanne: The Feds have contracts with the pharmacies and not doctors’ offices. Medicare will pay for certain immunizations like the flu shot but not others like Shingrix, so you might be able to get a flu shot at your doctor’s office, but not COVID or Shingrix. And insurance companies vary on which immunization they will pay for so you have to check your insurance.
The big pharmacies are contracted with the Federal government and also insurance companies. So using the contracted pharmacies is what most patients need to do these days.
Matt McIrvin
@TBone:
Antivaxxer, or just “it’s not our job”?
Either way, it’s odd. I didn’t get COVID shots from my GP but she asked me. And they did give me Shingrix (boy, that one packed a wallop).
H.E.Wolf
Thank you to Anne Laurie for this good news!
Ohio Mom
@Scout211: Small resection: Medicare now pays for the Shingrix (shingles) vaccine.
I paid for mine but the next year when Ohio Dad finally got around to it, it was free.
bluefoot
Yay for vaccine approval! I got my vaccine in October last year, and that seemed to have served me well over the holidays. Still, I am seeing the doctor next week so I plan to ask for the vaccine then.
My brother-in-law still has some long COVID symptoms, 4 years after his first (and I think only) bout of COVID. Someone close to me died recently from what the doctors think was a fast-progressing autoimmune condition triggered by COVID. I want to hold off getting COVID for as long as possible. I know it’s pretty much inevitable that I’ll get it, but it does weird things to your immune system.
bluefoot
@TBone: A doctor I know in a semi-rural area told me that they don’t keep many vaccines on hand since the demand is so low and the vaccines expire. So they send people to pharmacies, who have both better storage and higher use rates. I think the exception is the childhood vaccines. Even here in metro Boston, after I got bitten by a bat my PCP sent me to the ER to get the rabies vaccine since they didn’t have any on hand. I’m not sure why practices can’t order/retain smaller amounts of vaccines though.
Scout211
@Ohio Mom: TY. You are correct. That has changed since I got the Shingrix.
My insurance (part D) did pay for it at that time at a contracted pharmacy. But both my sisters had a large copay with their part D. And all three of us were required to use contracted pharmacies.
Ohio Mom
@Matt McIrvin: My doctor’s office gives a limited menu of shots: they’ve given me flu, tetanus and pneumonia shots. The university health system my PCP is part of gave the first Covid shot and first few boosters at a central site.
I go to CVS for a everything else. I think it’s mainly economics that determines what vaccines the office keeps on hand — how often are we going to administer this vaccine, is it going to go bad before we finish the vial?
That’s why you can count on pediatrician offices to have all the childhood vaccines on hand, there is always another kid who needs a shot or a booster.
Or: what Bluefoot said first.
CaseyL
My most recent vax was in May, so if the decline in efficacy is 4 months, I should get the latest shot next month. If the flu shot is also available then, I’ll get that as well.
GregMulka
Whole family is signed up at CVS on the 31st. We’ve been incredibly lucky. Only my spouse has caught Covid, and that was two years ago right after she got the booster. The upside is we didn’t have to make the trip to visit her parents. :)
Scout211
CVS texted me that they have the flu shots now. But we all have to figure out the timing of the flu shot to make sure it’s effective for us throughout the flu season. Most recommendations I have read are September/October but YMMV.
RaflW
I’m hoping Novavax gets the nod soon. Maybe I’m just unscientific, but I want to try it this go-round. Not that the mechanism probably matters that much, but why not mix it up a bit.
The spike in spread is concerning, but right now we can navigate a fair amount of outdoor activities. I’m wanting to get my dose closer to our flight to Sweden in early Oct (so a mid-Sept availability of Novavax is fine).
marklar
Advice from a cousin (immunologist) of mine regarding getting both shots at the same time….If you are one of the unlucky few who has a bad reaction, you won’t know which shot caused it.
While it’s important to get both COVID and flu shots, if you have the time and access to space them a wee bit apart, it might be a good idea. If the trip/time is an issue, both at the same time is better than forgoing one of them.
OzarkHillbilly
@TBone: “Tell me, do you give out the clap along with Covid? Or is it only one at a time?”
Ohio Mom
@bluefoot: Vaccines usually come in multi-dose bottles. Like toilet paper, it’s cheaper to buy a big bottle/Cosco-sized box of TP than individual single-dose vials/single roll of TP.
Because the seal is broken after the first dose is extracted, multi-dose bottles contain preservatives, which is sometimes a form of mercury. You might remember the scare about mercury in vaccines causing autism. As a result, mercury was removed from childhood vaccines and another preservative substituted (I believe mercury is still used in the annual flu vaccine and maybe other vaccines for adults).
“Live” (attenuated virus) vaccines can’t include preservative because the preservative would basically kill the “live” virus and then the vaccine would not work. These vaccines come in single dose vials.
MMR is a live vaccine. The completely discounted autism scare about that vaccine was that somehow the vaccine cause the gut to leak and the viruses would cross the blood brain barrier and attack the brain.
People conflate the mercury and MMR theories all the time. I don’t believe the MMR theory but remain agnostic about the mercury one but that’s moot at this point.
ETA: there are many causes of autism and many cases are probably overdetermined, I don’t think it was ever just mercury if indeed mercury contributed, we’ll never know.
Ohio Mom
@Ohio Mom: Also, after a while, autism families usually stop wondering about causes and worry more about whether or not their child will have all the services and supports (government benefits) they will need for their entire lifetime.
dc
I’m not finding the CDC Covid vaccine page, meaning the link to finding the nearest vaccination sites to you using your zip code. What did they do with this page? I HATE this ignorant, scared-of-its-own shadow CDC, HATE!
This is their page now: https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/getting-your-covid-19-vaccine.html
It does not have the vaccine search function it used to have. Total garbage!
trollhattan
Great news, given California’s Covid infection rates are spiking AND school districts are starting up everywhere, giving us millions of little vectors spending quality time together and back home.
Not going to the movies, anytime soon. Malls? As if.
rikyrah
yes yes yes yes yes yes
thank you
Bill Arnold
@Matt McIrvin:
Seasonal influenza has a much lower R (R0) than SARS-CoV-2 does. Like 1.6 for a novel strain and 1.2+ for an ordinary strain.
That’s why masking and other NPIs, while they were common, basically stopped the spread of seasonal flu
Masking is absolutely worthwhile when potentially being exposed to influenza, along with hand washing.
gvg
@dc: It just got approved today. There is nothing to find yet. That was explained above.
dc
@gvg: I saw that note on their page, so I partially take back the garbage and coward accusation, but they are and have been cowards despite being also important and useful.
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: her assistant had cherry-picked bible quote religious tattoos visible all over her arms, so I’m guessing anti-vaxxer. Plus the lack of masks is a giveaway. They only masked up when they saw mine.
I hate this timeline.
TBone
@OzarkHillbilly: if you know, you know, and YOU KNOW! ❤️
TBone
@dc: 🤬
TBone
@bluefoot: I can attest!!! Aaarrrggghhh
First, long Lyme decimated my immune system capabilities, then long Covid came in for the kill shot.
opiejeanne
@Scout211: Thanks. That makes total sense. Costco has the Shingrix vax too.
They do offer some vaccines, including the one for mumps which they offered me recently after testing showed I had no immunity to it. I had the other two diseases as a teenager.
TBone
@marklar: I’ve never had a strong reaction to a Covid shot, but last year’s quadrivalent flu vaccine almost sent me to the E.R.
Your advice is on point.
Eunicecycle
@Scout211: Medicare covers all vaccines now. It covered my Shingrex shots.
Scout211
Yes. I guess I blanked on that. 🙄 It has been a recent development, but I should have remembered it.
Thanks for the correction and Ohio Mom, too.
Eunicecycle
@Scout211: we went to get toward the end of the year, and the pharmacist is the one who told us to wait until the beginning of the next year because it would be free. It was going to be about $400 a piece for both shots.
ETA thanks Joe Biden!
Scout211
This thread may be dead, but the Biden administration jus announced more good news.
bluefoot
@TBone:
Long Lyme is also no joke. Having long Lyme and then long COVID?!? Yikes! You have my sympathies. In my circle, I know of a couple of cases of people either developing very specific weird allergies or an autoimmune disease after COVID.
IME, the hardest part about post-viral syndromes or autoimmune anything is how unpredictable it is. I mean, one can have specific triggers for flares, but you can go from feeling okay to it being too much to just walk up a flight of stairs from one day to the next for no discernible reason. It makes living life and making plans really fraught.
Skepticat
I have an appointment for September 6 for the updated COVID, RSV, and flu vaccinations. Briefly sore arms will be well worth it.
TBone
@bluefoot: 🎯 making plans is no longer possible, for the most part. 😞
TBone
@Scout211: SO glad I checked back in here, thank you for sharing!
VFX Lurker
Thank you for this update, Anne Laurie. My husband and I will get the new flu shot as soon as we have recovered from COVID, then we’ll both get the new COVID shot three months after that.
Ray Ingles
Too late for me. I wanted to boost up before we went on a big family trip to Italy, but they weren’t ready. Had an absolute blast there, but got sniffles the day after we got home.
Negative test then, but days later my smell/taste plummeted, and positive tests after that. About 7 out of fifteen people on that trip are now positive, thankfully NOT including our 86 year old Nonnie.
I’ll get this shot once it’s feasible, FWIW. All our family’s gotten all their boosters up to now.
glc
@Scout211: Always good to have these things posted, and reposted.
Kayla Rudbek
Thanks for the news; I just scheduled my appointment at Walgreens
KateP
I just booked an appointment for my vaccine at Walgreens. They will have available starting September 6 and I booked for that day. Flying Colorado September 20 so I want it to be effective by then.