White House COVID-19 coordinator says updated vaccine boosters will be available in few weeks
According to statements made by White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha on Wednesday, updated COVID-19 boosters would be ready in “a few short weeks.”
According to Jha, anybody above the age of 12 will most likely be eligible to get the improved vaccine.
“The bottom line is that this virus has evolved substantially since the first vaccines were built, that is why we have seen waning immunity,” said Jha.
According to Jha, the updated vaccines provide protection against the omicron form, which was not available in the original vaccines that were released in late 2020 and early 2021. According to Jha, receiving two doses of the original vaccine “is not enough.”
Jha said, “Just like the flu vaccine where people need to get updated once a year, we’ll probably need to get updated for COVID on an ongoing basis.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that in the month of July, COVID-19 was responsible for the deaths of more than 12,000 Americans. The virus is still causing the deaths of more than 400 people every day on average in the United States.
Pfizer and Moderna have both said that new research reveals that their updated vaccines are more effective than their prototype vaccines at preventing COVID-19 infections.
The White House made the announcement at the end of the previous month that it had bought 105 million doses of the updated Pfizer vaccine and 66 million doses of the updated Moderna vaccine.
