CDC signs off on 2nd dose of omicron Covid booster for older adults
Source: NBC News
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday backed a second dose of the updated Covid booster for older adults and people with weakened immune systems. The recommendation is in line with the Food and Drug Administration, which authorized the additional dose on Tuesday.
Those 65 and older can get a second dose of the updated versions of Pfizer-BioNTechs and Modernas Covid booster at least four months after their last dose, the FDA said in a statement. Most people who are immunocompromised can get an additional dose at least two months after their last dose, according to the agency.
The move by the CDC came hours after the agency's advisory panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, met to discuss the changes authorized by the FDA. The CDC sign off means shots could begin immediately.
Following the FDA, the CDC also recommended using the bivalent formula in all Covid vaccines moving forward and is doing away with the multidose primary series for people who have not yet been vaccinated. That means people who havent been vaccinated yet would get single doses of the updated vaccine.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-omicron-booster-2nd-dose-older-adults-rcna79568
This would be another dose of the current bivalent not an updated version one (that hasn't been decided yet).
ananda
(28,936 posts)Yay
House of Roberts
(5,208 posts)I got my last shot Dec. 16th.
I was afraid if they made it six months, the government support would expire before I was eligible for another.
oldsoftie
(12,706 posts)Do people with weakened immune systems get 2-3 flu shots a year? I've never heard of getting more than one regardless of your health. Yes, COVID is different than the "regular" flu, but it just seems like we're boosting a LOT more than we ever have for ANY disease. I'm not sure thats a great idea if you're not a compromised person. Some reputable doctors brought this up when the 4th shot recommendation came out. Several stories out there regarding the topic. I imagine they'll feel the same about betting a 5th.
Wednesdays
(17,534 posts)that killed a million Americans in three years?
BumRushDaShow
(130,386 posts)To give a comparison of the severity of COVID (and mortality from the pneumona it can cause) vs the flu (and the pneumonia that it can cause), see this chart (done regularly and the below covers 2018 - the end of 2022) -
From here - https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/mortality.html
I circled the flu deaths in green (the peaks are orange) and you can compare with the blue peaks for COVID (they use 2 different colors of blue as they switch between years).
The red line traces the % of the combined pneumonia deaths (from COVID and flu).
The issue here being that COVID impacts so many vital organs AND it mutates as much if not more than flu. So it is obvious that getting it without having the body able to mount an effective, if any immune response to fight it off, can lead to a severe outcome (and that is the purpose of multiple more shots for certain individuals because their bodies don't or can't mount a defense without some boosting).
And note that nowadays, when you get a flu shot, they do it as a trivalent or quadrivalent, so they have multiple types in the one shot. The flu vaccine has been out for a long time now and the body has been exposed to Influenza A's & B's many variants over that period, so the body is "familiar" with it.
However, COVID-19 has only been circulating for going on 4 years, so although the claims are that it is "endemic", it really isn't yet, and the human body is slowly adapting to deal with it.
Blues Heron
(5,959 posts)Second guessing the science has made this thing so much worse than it had to be. All those deniers that thought they knew better than the CDC- many of them made regret tapes before their shredded lungs took them to an early grave. But yeah, shots ArE ScArY.
WestMichRad
(1,353 posts)Lower mortality since introduction of the covid vaccines is partly due to vaccine effectiveness and partly to weakening of successive strains of the virus. One can only imagine the numbers if more had gotten vaccinated and took easy precautions.
mRNA vaccines apparently dont have the same staying power as our flu vaccines. Other vaccinations (like that for tetanus) last much longer, but they are combatting much different health threats so its not a fair comparison.
barbtries
(28,829 posts)i'll keep taking 'em as long as they're available to me.
thank you for the heads up!
Rhiannon12866
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