Moderna recently revealed new clinical trial data showing that one month after subjects received its new omicron-targeting booster candidate, they produced levels of neutralizing antibodies that were 1.69 times higher than did subjects who received the original booster. Jha stressed that getting vaccinated now will not preclude you from getting an omicron-specific vaccine or booster when distribution likely begins this fall.
No Need to Wait Until Omicron-Targeted Shots Arriveĭr. “Vaccines remain our single-most important tool to protect people against serious illness, hospitalizations, and death, and staying up to date is essential as we see BA.5 rise across the country,” said the COVID-19 response coordinator for the White House, Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, at a press briefing on July 12. They are also urging immunocompromised individuals ages 12 and up to get boosted. They are encouraging everyone ages 5 and up to get a first booster, and people 50 and older to get a first or second booster. “Those who are eligible for a second booster ought to get it now - boosting helped protect the President against serious illness,” says William Schaffner, MD, an infectious-disease specialist and a professor of preventive medicine and health policy at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.Įven though new omicron-targeting boosters are expected by the fall, White House officials have said there’s no reason to wait.
The researchers concluded that current “vaccine boosters may not achieve broad-spectrum protection against new omicron variants.” That may explain why so many people who are fully vaccinated and boosted are getting infected, including President Joe Biden.įortunately, vaccines and boosters appear to be effective at keeping severe illness to a minimum.
Tracking by The New York Times on July 25 shows the average number of infections in the United States rose by an average of 10 percent over the previous two weeks, while hospitalizations climbed by 12 percent and new deaths jumped by 34 percent.Ī study published June 17 in the journal Nature found that BA.5 and its sister subvariant, BA.4, not only exhibit higher transmissibility than previous omicron versions, but are also better able to evade protections from three doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The mutation is driving a recent surge in COVID-19 cases. The new and highly transmissible BA.5 subvariant of omicron has become the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the United States, accounting for just over 80 percent of all new cases as of July 26, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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