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Since You Already Have The Flu Vaccine, Why Not Get A Covid Vaccine?


As the coronavirus turns into a stubborn and unpredictable aspect of daily life, scientists and federal health officials are converging on a new strategy to vaccinate Americans: a vaccination campaign this fall, perhaps with precisely adjusted doses to combat the anticipated version of the virus.

The plan will borrow heavily from the playbook to distribute annual flu vaccines and could become a template for arming Americans against the coronavirus for years to come.

But some experts question how well a renewed vaccine pressure will be met by a public weary of the pandemic, whether doses can be delivered quickly enough to reach the people who need it most, and whether most Americans need additional vaccines.

On June 28, the Food and Drug Administration’s scientific advisors will meet to identify the coronavirus variant most likely leaking in the United States as temperatures cool. This should give manufacturers time to decide whether the composition of vaccines needs to be revised and ramp up production enough to produce hundreds of millions of doses by October.

The FDA’s scientific advisors said they would prefer to switch to a new version of the vaccine only when existing vaccines are no longer effective and a modified version has proven to be better.

The idea is that eligible Americans should file for coronavirus and flu immunizations this fall at the same time and in the same places: pharmacies, doctor’s offices, practice and the like. Some key details—like who will be eligible—will be listed at meetings of the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s scientific advisors next month.

The plan will mark a departure from the current sequential booster firing ranges for various age groups. But the shortcomings of the annual approach have been obvious to flu researchers for years.

Scientists and federal health officials usually decide on the formulation of the flu vaccine in the spring, six months before flu season. They predict which version of the flu virus will reach the United States by looking at what’s already circulating in the Southern Hemisphere, among other factors.

But in some years, Dr. John, the director of the precision vaccines program and FDA advisor at Boston Children’s Hospital. “By the time the vaccine was produced, the strains changed and it might not be a good match then,” Ofer Levy said. , I said.

Among the fallout Covid vaccine candidates are a booster designed for Omicron, the strange new avatar of the coronavirus, and combinations containing it. The company’s chief medical officer, Dr. Paul Burton said Moderna’s lead booster candidate contains 25 micrograms each of its original vaccine and an Omicron-specific vaccine.

Pfizer is also testing an Omicron-specific vaccine, but won’t make a decision on the fall candidate until June, according to company spokesperson Jerica Pitts.

Even if vaccine compliance isn’t perfect, boosting immunity should provide some protection against any new variants in the fall, as the flu vaccine does.

The number of Americans choosing to take booster doses decreased with each newly recommended shot. While 90 percent of American adults received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine, 76 percent chose a second dose and only 50 percent chose a third.

D., a senior researcher at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, who chairs the CDC’s vaccine working group. “Thinking about additional doses for a smaller and smaller return creates the impression that we don’t have a very effective vaccine program,” said Matthew Daley.

Dr. Daley and other advisers warned at a meeting of their committees last month that a nationwide campaign for another vaccine would unnecessarily drain pharmacists, suppliers and public health personnel.

And experts worry that with the risks of serious illness and death low for most Americans, this fall, if a new variant emerges and the public urgently needs it, it could dampen the mass desire to get vaccinated later. HE IS.

Repeat immunizations it can even blunt the effectiveness of a vaccine. For example, people who are flu shot evolve in a year stronger immunity than those vaccinated. two years in a rowIt noted Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

Despite the misgivings, federal officials are gearing up for a fall campaign. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biological Evaluation and Research, said that pairing the Covid vaccine with the flu each year is the simplest way to persuade Americans to queue for vaccines.

Dr. “It saves people time,” said Marks. “And that could mean more people get both vaccines, which would be a good thing.”

Agency scientists are actively discussing the best composition for the fall vaccine with the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, and vaccine manufacturers, said Dr. Marks.

To avoid confusing people, the FDA prefers to offer roughly identical formulations of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. Otherwise, Dr. “I’m worried that this could really paralyze a vaccination campaign when the most important thing is people empowerment,” Marks said.

However, if the flu shot is any indication, many Americans will give up on another Covid vaccine. The Omicron variant has made it clear that preventing all infections is an unattainable goal, and many see themselves only at low risk of serious illness or death.

Still, Dr. Marks noted that flu campaigns aim to prevent not only medical consequences, but also loss of productivity.

Prior to the arrival of the Omicron variant, management officials said that the Covid vaccines were aimed at preventing all symptomatic infections, but they have since abandoned that stance.

While Covid vaccines have blunted the spread of earlier variants by up to 70 percent, “For Omicron, that’s definitely not true,” he said. “It would be nice to have something that does a better job.”

Some experts said that instead of another round of injections, the best candidate for limiting infections would be a nasal spray that will coat the nose and throat with antibodies to block the virus in its entryway. But these sprays won’t be in the United States for at least two or three years.

Until Omicron came along, FDA scientists were so excited about mRNA vaccines that they didn’t consider alternative boosters, added Dr. Marks: “We may be temporarily blinded by the light.”

Still, representing the CDC in the Covid-19 vaccine working group, Dr. Sara Oliver said minimizing the number of infections whenever possible is “clearly a very, very important secondary goal.”

“As well as reducing the spread of the virus and social disruption, dwindling infections should lessen long cases of Covid, a constellation of symptoms that can last for months,” he said.

The new plan could rekindle some long-standing tensions. Disagreements over who should recommend vaccines have plagued these institutions for months.

Generally, the FDA’s scientific advisors review the safety and efficacy of vaccines and recommend authorization or approval. Experts who advise the CDC then issue guidelines for who should receive the vaccines and when.

During the pandemic, the lines between the White House, FDA, and CDC have often blurred. Dr. “One of the challenges right now is that we have many voices talking about vaccination policy, and historically we only have one voice,” Daley said.

For example, when the FDA allowed a second booster, it only did so for adults age 50 and older—a distinction that would normally come from the CDC’s vaccine advisors.

The CDC also made a fine distinction that many Americans overlook: It recommended that adults over 50 get support if they wanted it, not that they should. But the new Covid czar of the White House, Dr. Ashish Jha approves second reinforcement shots.

Infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and scientific advisor to the United States, Dr. “It’s not entirely clear whether the White House is in a position to make vaccine recommendations on its own, but he said it does recommend it anyway,” Camille Kotton said. CDC, said Dr. jha.

It’s unclear who will pay for the fall vaccination campaign. The stalemate in Congress over Covid-19 funding is jeopardizing the government’s ability to purchase and provide vaccines to the people who need it most.

“Without urgent additional funding, we are unable to provide enough booster vaccines for every American who wants it if needed in the fall, and we are unable to find newer, more effective vaccines that protect against new variants,” Sarah Lovenheim said. “The public relations secretary in the Department of Health and Human Services,” she said.



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