A nurse prepares a syringe of COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination station in Jackson, Miss., in 2022. An FDA advisory committee voted on Thursday to simplify its approach. country for COVID vaccination.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
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Rogelio V. Solis/AP
A nurse prepares a syringe of COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination station in Jackson, Miss., in 2022. An FDA advisory committee voted on Thursday to simplify its approach. country for COVID vaccination.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
Update 5:55 p.m. ET
An advisory committee of the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on a proposal to simplify the national strategy for vaccinating people against COVID-19.
It is recommended that future COVID-19 vaccines be interchangeable: regardless of whether you are getting a first dose or a booster dose, all vaccines will have the same formulation targeting the same one or more strains of the virus, regardless of the manufacturer. Unanimous vote: 21-0.
In addition, the committee considered (but did not vote) proposals for an annual COVID vaccination schedule, like the United States for influenza. If this were to happen, most people would be advised to get only one shot each fall with a new vaccine that may have been tweaked to try to accommodate any predicted variations. spread every winter. This means Americans will no longer need to keep track of how many or when they’ve had their shots.
The idea behind the innovation is to make vaccination less complicated and confusing. The ultimate goal is to get more people vaccinated.
“Because [the coronavirus’] evolve rapidly, we need to adjust our approach over time, and we are now in a reasonable place to reflect on the development of COVID-19 vaccines to date to see if they Can I simplify the vaccination approach,” Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine official, spoke at the start of the day-long meeting.
He added that the goals are “to facilitate optimal vaccination and to protect the entire population in the future,”
Only 15% of people in the United States have received the latest bivalent COVID-19 booster, which targets the original virus strain and omicron BA.5, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only 40% of people 65 years of age and older, who are at higher risk for severe COVID, get a booster shot.
“We can’t keep doing what we’re doing. We have to keep going,” said Dr. Bruce Gellin, interim voting member on the panel, head of global public health strategy at the Foundation. Rockefeller said. “I think this is a reasonable approach.”
During the discussion, FDA Markers acknowledged “fade” results in enhancer implementations.
The committee agreed that it was time to update the administration of the COVID vaccine.
Dr Ofer Levy, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Harvard Medical School, said: “As we move from pandemic to pandemic, today’s vote marks a major practical victory. for the American people. This is really going to benefit public health.” School.
In a discussion following the vote, the committee discussed several ways to improve vaccination strategies. The advisers voiced support for the proposal to hold public meetings to guide the selection of vaccine strains. After the meetings, the agency will make a final decision on the selection of strains and direct manufacturers to ramp up production.
The agency proposed a meeting in late May or early June this year to get ready for the fall. The goal is to make the vaccine suitable for coronavirus strains that are likely to circulate during the winter.
Some council members said meetings may need to be held more often than once a year, as is the case with the flu vaccine, due to the rate of change in SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the virus. out COVID-19.
“This is not the flu,” the FDA’s Marks acknowledged, however, adding that there are useful precedents from how flu vaccines are tailored. There is likely to be at least one advisory committee meeting each year on the selection of virus strains for vaccines and related issues, he said.
As suggested by the FDA, most people would get a single shot in the fall. The elderly, young children, and people with compromised immune systems may receive multiple shots spaced apart instead of a single shot.
Dr Stanley Perlman, acting chair of the committee and a coronavirus researcher at the University of Iowa, said: “As a general rule, the committee favors going with this.
No votes were made on both discussion points.
