The Biden administration plans to urge all Americans to get a booster shot for the coronavirus this autumn to counter a new wave of infections, a White House official said on Sunday.
The official said that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting an increase in infections and hospital admissions from the virus, overall levels remain low.
On Thursday, Moderna (MRNA.O) said initial data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the “Eris” and “Fornax” subvariants in humans.
Moderna and other COVID-19 vaccine makers Novavax (NVAX.O), Pfizer (PFE.N) and German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) have created versions of their shots aimed at the XBB.1.5 subvariant.
Pending approval from health regulators in the United States and Europe, the companies expect the updated shots to be available in the coming weeks for the autumn vaccination season.
“We will be encouraging all Americans to get those boosters in addition to flu shots and RSV shots,” the official said, referring to the Respiratory Syncytial Virus.
They should already know. Flu vaccines get updated every year, and we’ve known COVID immunity falls off fairly rapidly regardless. People were going only 3-6 months between infections in the initial outbreak. I don’t know what the longevity of the COVID vaccines are but it doesn’t seem great, even ignoring that you need updates for new mutations.
Now, maybe his supply of vaccine doesn’t protect against the latest strains, but if that was the case I’d expect him to have mentioned that, because it isn’t the overall supply either since some places are throwing them away.
There’s always the chance your doctor is just an idiot.
After all, do you know what you call the bottom 10% of a medical school graduating class?