CDC’s Walensky Signs Off On Omicron Booster–Here’s When You Can Get One

Topline

Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, signed off on Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech’s updated Covid-19 booster shots targeting the virulent omicron variant late Thursday night, giving the final go ahead for the Biden administration’s fall vaccination campaign in preparation for a possible winter surge.

Key Facts

Pfizer’s vaccine will be available to Americans 12 years and older as soon as this weekend, while Moderna’s shots will be available to Americans 18 and older.

The CDC said hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses have been delivered around the country as of Thursday and it expects to have millions distributed by Labor Day, the New York Times reported.

Walensky’s approval was expected, coming one day after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted overwhelmingly to approve the bivalent shots, and two days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots.

The boosters protect against the original strain of Covid-19 as well as the more contagious omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which have become the predominant strain, with BA.5 accounting for nearly 89% of overall cases in the U.S., according to CDC data.

What To Watch For

The CDC said it will update its booster recommendation “in the coming weeks.” Currently, people who have already received one or two boosters are eligible for the new shot at least two months after they received their last shot, while people who have not received a booster are eligible two months after their primary series vaccination. The shots are not intended to be used as the first vaccination for people who have not received any shots of the vaccine.

Big Number

85,761. That’s how many new daily Covid-19 cases the CDC reported, on average, in the week ending September 1, with a daily average of roughly 403 deaths and 5,107 new hospitalizations.

Key Background

The FDA recommended pharmaceutical companies reformulate their Covid boosters in June to target omicron specifically, fearing a winter surge of the contagious variant, which ripped through the country last year, when average daily coronavirus deaths topped 2,700. The FDA’s expectation at the time was to have the shots ready early to mid-fall. Although cases have been steadily dropping this summer, hospitalizations still rose in June and July, especially among people over 65. Part of the issue was that the effectiveness of the first and second booster shots had been wearing off as new mutations developed. In order to prepare the vaccines for use this fall, the FDA relied on Pfizer and Moderna’s testing on mice, rather than wait for more studies on humans. President Joe Biden placed an order in June for 170 million doses of the vaccines.

Further Reading

CDC Advisory Panel Recommends New Covid Booster Shots Targeting Omicron—Here’s What You Need To Know (Forbes)

CDC endorses updated COVID boosters, shots to begin soon (Associated Press)