Key Points
Amid a summer surge of Covid-19 infections, the US Food and Drug Administration just approved updated mRNA vaccines that more closely target the currently circulating variants of the coronavirus...
The updated vaccines, from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, target a variant of Omicron called KP.2, one of the several so-called FLiRT variants that collectively are responsible for the current Covid wave..
Given waning immunity of the population from previous exposure to the virus and from prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated Covid-19 vaccine, said Peter Marks, director of the FDAs Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a statement on Thursday...
Its spinning through variants more quickly than what we're seeing with flu, she says.. The FDA green light comes after an advisory committee in June unanimously recommended that manufacturers develop updated Covid vaccines for this fall..
Most of the time, we recommend getting both the Covid and the flu vaccines more toward late September, October, to try to carry people through the winter months, says Rosha McCoy, a pediatrician and senior director of health care affairs at the Association of American Medical Colleges..
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