FDA Proposes a Shift to Annual COVID Vaccine Shots for Healthy Adults

(CTN News) – To streamline the nation’s COVID vaccine policy, the U.S. health authority suggested giving healthy persons one dose of the most recent updated COVID-19 injection yearly, comparable to the influenza vaccination campaign.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also requested that its panel of outside experts explore administering two doses of the COVID vaccine annually to selected small children, elderly people, and those with weakened immune systems.

In briefing materials provided in advance of a meeting of its panel on Thursday, the regulator suggested the need for regular selection of variations for upgrading the COVID vaccine, similar to how strains for flu vaccinations are altered yearly.

The FDA thinks yearly immunization schedules would help make vaccine deployment less difficult and result in fewer vaccine delivery mistakes and higher vaccination coverage rates. After announcing its plan to revise last month, the agency’s proposal was in line with expectations.

Additionally, the Biden administration has been preparing a booster vaccination program each autumn.

Currently, most persons in the United States must get the first COVID vaccine in two doses, at least three to four weeks apart from one another, and then a booster dose a few months later.

Three injections are required for Pfizer’s recommended vaccination dosages for kids and adults, with the third shot being a bivalent shot administered around two months later.

If the panel approves the proposal, all doses of the COVID vaccine, not only boosters, would be administered using the bivalent vaccines produced by Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N) and Moderna Inc. (MRNA.O), which target both the Omicron and the original variations.

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