The elderly and those with comorbidities may have to take more shots, with the annual strategy being relooked based on how dire the Covid-19 situation is at a given time.
People can get their Covid-19 booster at the same time as the flu booster, said Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 coordinator.
“I believe this is why God gave us two arms, one for the flu shot and the other for the Covid shot.”
AFP reported Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky said projections indicated taking the Covid-19 boosters at rates similar to annual flu could stop as many as 100,000 hospitalisations and 9,000 deaths.
It is expected millions of people will receive their bivalent boosters, made by Pfizer and Moderna, in September, and are focused especially on people aged 50 and up.
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US FDA considers offering annual booster shots for Covid-19
Image: Waldo Swiegers
Health officials in the US said the country is considering offering Covid-19 booster shots in a similar fashion to annual influenza vaccines.
According to reports by AFP, the booster shots will be taken annually and are aimed at reducing the emergence of Covid-19 variants.
The consideration came after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised revised bivalent shots against the original strain of the coronavirus and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant, which are predominant.
“We likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual updated Covid-19 shots matched to the circulating strains,” President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci told reporters.
The elderly and those with comorbidities may have to take more shots, with the annual strategy being relooked based on how dire the Covid-19 situation is at a given time.
People can get their Covid-19 booster at the same time as the flu booster, said Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 coordinator.
“I believe this is why God gave us two arms, one for the flu shot and the other for the Covid shot.”
AFP reported Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky said projections indicated taking the Covid-19 boosters at rates similar to annual flu could stop as many as 100,000 hospitalisations and 9,000 deaths.
It is expected millions of people will receive their bivalent boosters, made by Pfizer and Moderna, in September, and are focused especially on people aged 50 and up.
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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