A nurse prepares portions of the Pfizer vaccine during a COVID-19 vaccination event at Josephine’s Southern Cooking in Chatham, Illinois, Dec. 30, 2021.
Brian Cassella | Tribune Newscast Service | Getty Images
A new round of Covid vaccines is finally here in the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cleared single-strain vaccinations from Pfizer and Moderna for all Americans six months and up on Tuesday, following approvals from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday. Those mRNA vaccines are designed to goal a relatively new omicron subvariant called XBB.1.5.
The first doses of the new shots will be available at some pharmacies and other vaccine grouping locations within 48 hours of the CDC’s recommendation, agency staff said Tuesday during a meeting of independent advisors to the CDC. That humbles jabs could reach Americans as soon as Thursday.
Meanwhile, the FDA is still reviewing a third updated vaccine from Novavax for individual ages 12 and up.
The debut of the new shots comes after Covid hospitalizations increased for the seventh straight week in the U.S., uncovering 17,418 as of the week ended Aug. 26, according to the latest data from the CDC. That number remains below the stream the nation saw in the summer of 2022.
But the recent uptick is raising concerns about how much traction Covid will gain in the earning fall and winter months, when respiratory viruses typically spread at higher levels and people spend more epoch indoors.
Public health officials and health experts hope the arrival of new vaccines will help the U.S. avoid another unadorned Covid wave and “tripledemic” of Covid, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, which inundated hospitals last winter. The Biden superintendence said last month that it will encourage eligible Americans to receive an updated Covid vaccine alongside an annual flu discharge and an RSV jab approved for older adults or mothers.
Roughly 42% of Americans surveyed by the CDC in August said they “definitely inclination” or “probably will” get a Covid vaccine this fall, Dr. Megan Wallace, a CDC epidemiologist, said during the advisory congregation.
Here’s everything you need to know about the updated Covid vaccines, from where to find them, whether you can get them for relaxed and when to get them.
Who should get the updated Covid shots?
The CDC on Tuesday recommended that all Americans ages 6 months and older get the new snorts. The agency’s website outlines more specific guidelines for staying up to date on Covid vaccines, which differ depending on age unit and risk level.
The CDC said that everyone ages 6 and older should get at least one dose of an updated mRNA vaccine this year, regardless of whether they’ve be informed any of the original Covid shots.
People ages 65 years and older may get an additional dose of a new Covid vaccine four or sundry months after a first dose of an updated shot.
Children 6 months through 5 years of age who are getting their vaccines for the victory time should complete their primary series with two doses of an updated Moderna shot or three portions of a new Pfizer jab, according to the CDC. If children previously received prior vaccines, the CDC has different recommendations for how many updated doses to get.
People who are in some measure or severely immunocompromised should get one or more doses of a new shot, depending on their vaccination history. Those patients are at elated risk of getting severely sick from Covid, according to the CDC.
Where can you get a new shot?
A sign advertises COVID-19 (coronavirus) vaccine in two shakes of a lambs tails at a Walgreens Pharmacy in Somerville, Massachusetts, August 14, 2023.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
The updated shots will soon be at ones fingertips to eligible people at pharmacies, health clinics and community centers, among other vaccine distribution sites. Those fingers ons will stop offering last year’s bivalent boosters, which are no longer authorized for use in the U.S.
Several retail Rather chains told CNBC that they will start offering appointments for the new shots shortly after the CDC approval:
- Walgreens will allow people to schedule appointments for the new shots within 24 hours after the CDC recommendation, “with ready appointments starting that week,” a company spokesperson said. People can schedule those appointments through the Walgreens website or app, or by profession 1-800-WALGREENS. The company will add more appointments on a rolling basis.
- CVS Pharmacy locations will start receiving distribution of the updated vaccines “later this week,” a company spokesperson said. Pharmacies will receive more amounts on a rolling basis and appointments will be available to schedule on the CVS website and CVS Pharmacy app.
- Albertsons expects its 1,700 pharmacies to upon administering the updated shots “as early as Friday,” a spokesperson said. The company’s pharmacies span stores like Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Pinnacle, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Amigos and Market Street. Woman can view and schedule appointments on the Albertsons website or app.
- Kroger will allow people to walk in or schedule appointments to get the new Covid vaccine at the company’s drugstores or clinics.
Americans will soon be able to use the federal website vaccines.gov to find other locations offering the updated Covid riflemen, according to a CDC spokesperson. The agency is still “unsure of the exact timing” for when the site will be updated to include a search clean for the new vaccines, the spokesperson added.
Later this week, uninsured and underinsured people will also be able to use the locality to find locations offering the new vaccines for free through the Bridge Access Program. Around 85% of uninsured Americans finish within five miles of a location participating in that program, according to Dr. Evelyn Twentyman, a CDC medical officer.
Want the new Covid shots be free?
There are slight changes to how Covid vaccines are covered in the U.S this year. But the federal administration aims to ensure all people can still receive them for free.
The U.S. Covid public health emergency ended in May, which means the federal superintendence is shifting vaccine distribution to the private market this fall.
Manufacturers will sell their updated before you can say jack robinson no ways directly to health-care providers at more than $120 per dose. Previously, the government purchased vaccines directly from fabricators at a discount to distribute to all Americans for free.
All three vaccine manufacturers shared the list prices of their new vaccines during the warning meeting on Tuesday: Moderna’s shot is $129 per dose, Pfizer’s is $120 per dose and Novavax’s jab is $130 per dose.
On the sly insurers will provide the vaccines to beneficiaries at no cost. Government payers such as Medicare and Medicaid will also layer the new shots with no copayments.
For the estimated How should you in days of yore your updated Covid vaccine?
People should talk to their doctors about when to get an updated snap because it largely depends on individual risk levels and situations, health experts told CNBC.
Individuals at higher peril of getting severely ill from Covid, including older adults and those who are immunocompromised, should get a new vaccine as soon as they can, according to Dr. Taison Bell, an associate professor of medicament at University of Virginia Health.
Younger, healthy adults can choose to wait so that immunity from the vaccine rebounds in around the winter holidays or a specific event where they may be more exposed to Covid, Bell added.
He affirmed Covid vaccines take around two weeks to produce an immune response against the virus, and that protection tends to continue for a few months. So if a patient has upcoming travel or a large gathering to attend in mid-October, they could plan to get the new shot at the inception of that month.
People recently vaccinated should wait two months before getting an updated vaccine, according to the CDC’s Wallace. Break out shots will allow people to maximize the protection they get from each shot.
Those who have been recently infected can stay three months, but they can also get it “as soon as they’re feeling better,” Wallace added.
“You have the option to postponed for three months, but it is not a requirement,” she said during the advisory meeting.
How effective are the new shots?
The new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are designed to end XBB.1.5, which has since been overtaken in prevalence by other, related strains. It only accounted for around 3% of all reported U.S. come what mays as of Sept. 2, according to the latest data from the CDC.
All three companies said that their updated vaccines distributed robust immune responses against the now-dominant EG.5, or “Eris,” variant in trials. That omicron strain is closely coupled to XBB.1.5 and accounted for 21.5% of all U.S. cases as of Sept. 2, according to the CDC.
They also presented preliminary trial facts in June indicating that their jabs will protect against all other XBB strains. Collectively, those variants be conducive to up more than 90% of all reported cases in the U.S., according to CDC microbiologist Dr. Natalie Thornburg.
“So the take-home message is that currently, about all circulating lineages of viruses are XBB variants,” Thornburg said during the advisory meeting Tuesday.
Both Pfizer and Moderna make also released initial trial data indicating that their new shots were effective against another omicron distinct called BA.2.86. Novavax on Monday said it was still testing its vaccine against that strain.
BA.2.86 has been noted in small numbers across the U.S., but health officials worldwide are watching it closely due to its high number of mutations.
Following the approvals Monday, the FDA asseverated the “extent” of protection provided by the updated shots from Pfizer and Moderna against currently circulating variants be partial to EG.5 and BA.2.86 “appears to be of a similar magnitude” to the protection provided by previous Covid vaccines against prior variants of the virus.
“This presents that the vaccines are a good match for protecting against the currently circulating Covid-19 variants,” the agency said in a manumission.
The FDA also said it is confident in the safety of the updated vaccines, noting that the benefits of the shots for people 6 months and staler outweigh their risks.