On Thursday, a new Covid-19 vaccine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and Americans will be able to access the new shots in the next few days.
The vaccines come amid the worst Covid wave of the past two years. And while dangerous outcomes like hospitalizations and deaths are nowhere near what they were at the height of the epidemic, both are still a risk, especially for older people and those with other risk factors like asthma or obesity.
This updated version of the vaccine does not target The currently dominant KP.3.1.1 strain, and instead focuses on the immediate predecessors of that variant, including a strain known as KP.2. This strain was more prevalent when the new formulation began to work; Long development times make it difficult for drugmakers to target every new variant.
“Evolution doesn’t stop and let us catch up,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Vox. “Evolution is always ongoing, and there is some unpredictability of where the virus might go.”
still, Scientists believe The new drug will provide the public with at least some increased measure of protection against serious illness, including against the latest forms. And it may offer some protection against infection because it targets close relatives of the currently dominant variant.
What to know about updated vaccines
So far, two new vaccines have been approved: one from Pfizer/BioNTech and one from Moderna. An update from Novavax is still awaiting approval.
dose Should be available within the week In doctors’ offices, as well CVS And Walgreens pharmacies across the country; Walgreens will begin offering appointments on September 6. However, the government is no longer buying and distributing the vaccine, so it is no longer available for free. Insurance carrier Most, if not all, of the cost of vaccination should be coveredAnd Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Here’s an overview of what those who pay out of pocket can expect.
The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older receive at least one dose of the vaccine, and that high-risk individuals receive two doses. Other countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, recommend that only those at high risk of hospitalization, serious illness, or death from the virus be vaccinated.
Adalza said that high-risk people should follow the CDC’s advice: “I’ve always been someone who wanted to make sure that the high-risk population really understood that these vaccines were going to benefit them disproportionately,” he told Vox.
The more risk factors you have – such as old age, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, a compromised immune system, pregnancy, asthma, and never been vaccinated or had Covid – the more important it is to take two doses. . “All those types of people, they should obviously be the ones running to get this vaccine,” Adalza said.
Although high-risk people should be given first priority for updated vaccines, that does not mean that healthy people without any of these risk factors will not benefit from vaccination; If you want to avoid infections, this version is probably going to be better at preventing infections than previous versions. However, even with updated vaccines, it’s a good idea to take other precautions, such as wearing a mask in public places.
Covid-19 is now a pandemic – part of our daily lives like flu and cold viruses. And it will continue to evolve to evade the body’s defenses, requiring new vaccine formulations. That means more new vaccine formulations are on the way, and once they’re approved, vaccination will still be the best way to protect yourself from the worst possible outcome.
