US CDC panel recommends new booster shots targeting Omicron subvariants
02 Sep 2022 12:03pm
CDC Director will still have to give final approval before pharmacies begin administering the new boosters. - Photo: Reuters
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The panel voted 13-1 in favour of the shots by Pfizer and Moderna that are meant to target both the original strain of COVID-19 as well as the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, United Press International (UPI) reported.
Pfizer's Omicron boosters are recommended for people aged 12 and older while Moderna's are endorsed for adults aged 18 and older, with the eligible age groups able to receive the boosters at least two months after completing their primary vaccine series or most recent booster.
Vaccine experts, however, suggest it would be better to wait at least four months since their last shot or COVID-19 infection.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will still have to give final approval before pharmacies begin administering the new boosters, at which point more than 200 million people will be eligible for the shots.
The US has secured more than 171 million doses of the new boosters from both companies and CDC official Dr Sara Oliver told the committee there should be enough supply of the vaccine to meet demand this fall.
No data from human trials has been made available for the new Omicron boosters, although the CDC and Food and Drug Administration used human data from shots targeting the original version of omicron, BA.1, that the companies were originally developing before the FDA asked them to target the new subvariants.
Dr Pablo Sanchez, the only committee member to vote against recommending the vaccines, wondered if the decision was "a little premature" due to the lack of human data.
"I voted no because I feel we really need the human data," Sanchez, a professor of paediatrics at Ohio State University, said. "There's a lot of vaccine hesitancy already. We need human data."
Panel member Dr Oliver Brooks, chief medical officer at Watts HealthCare Corporation in Los Angeles, questioned why the FDA asked the companies to focus on the newer subvariants when clinical data for the BA.1 shots were available.
Dr Sarah Long, another committee member, said there was no reason to expect the BA.5 boosters would be less effective than the old vaccines since they also include the original COVID-19 strain.
Moderna completed enrollment in clinical trials on the BA.5 shots last week and expects to have results by the end of the year, while Pfizer's clinical trial is ongoing and the company has not said when it expects results. - BERNAMA
