The UK has become the first country to approve a dual vaccine which tackles both the original Covid virus and the newer Omicron variant…
…Moderna thinks 13 million doses of its new vaccine will be available this year, but 26 million people are eligible for some form of booster.
Health officials say people should take whichever booster they are offered as all jabs provide protection.
The procedure for approving a vaccine with a new active (but using the same vehicle) is based on (amongst other things) limited human safety studies and immunogenicity studies*. They are detailed briefly in the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC):
Approval was based on human studies on 437 subjects, together with a vast wealth of experience with the “parent” vaccine, on which the revised version is based. So if you search the SmPC for “437” you’ll find summaries of the new human study data.
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* - I believe this is true of both Europe and the US; and by extension most of the rest of the world would, I’m sure, accept this approach.
A New York Times documentary (“Superspreader”) on one of the central figures in the Disinformation Dozen, Joe Mercola airs tonight at 10 on F/X (and streams on Hulu and other platforms).
Mercola has built an Internet-based sales empire and become wealthy spreading nonsense about miracle health treatments, engaging in antivaccine rants and more recently, downplaying the risk of Covid-19 (while spreading a conspiracy theory about its origins) and attacking effective handling of the pandemic.
Further to the article about the Moderna vaccine which is effective against both the original strain and the new Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, here’s a newish article from WebMD stating that this new vaccine should be available in September. That’s a month ahead of the schedule which was stated in other articles I’ve read.
That’s good - I’ll get this new Moderna booster as soon as it’s available, and in October (my usual time), I’ll get a flu shot.
The average life expectancy of Americans fell precipitously in 2020 and 2021, the sharpest two-year decline in nearly 100 years and a stark reminder of the toll exacted on the nation by the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
In 2021, the average American could expect to live until the age of 76, federal health researchers reported on Wednesday. The figure represents a loss of almost three years since 2019, when Americans could expect to live, on average, nearly 79 years.
(…)
While the pandemic has driven most of the decline in life expectancy, a rise in accidental deaths and drug overdoses also contributed, as did deaths from heart disease, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, the new report found.
Until now, experts have been accustomed to measuring life expectancy changes in increments of months, not years.
I’m probably going to try to get one in the 1st half of November. That should give me time to recover (if needed) before Thanksgiving, but my immune system will still be fully primed when Christmas arrives.
I saw a notice today that Walgreens (in Memphis) will have the new booster starting next week. They are accepting appointments. I looked at the Kroger site (where I prefer to go) and in the process of looking for appointments, it said I was not eligible. I’m assuming their site is just not updated for the new one yet. It’s been six months since my last booster and I’d like to get this one in the next week or so.
I stopped by our local CVS this morning for something else, and asked the pharmacists when they’d get the bivalent vaccine in. They said they had it now, but I had to get an appointment online to get it. So as soon as I post this, I’ll go online and get appointments for next Saturday.
Some reports are saying that if you’ve had COVID recently, you should put off getting the booster for a few months. But I can’t find an official statement from, say, the CDC to that effect. This is relevant to me because I just had COVID a couple weeks ago.
The CDC is still ignoring infection-based immunity. But your local epidemiologist has a good article about when to get boosted this fall
She recommends you consider your last exposure, whether that was a booster or an infection. She also suggests that you’re probably better off waiting 3 months than 2. Not because it’s dangerous to get the vaccine sooner, but because you are likely to get less benefit from it.
No, the CDC has looked closely at infection-based immunity (example here). A reminder: immunity after contracting Covid-19 may under some circumstances be superior to vaccine-produced immunity, but is still likely to wane over time - and most importantly requires you to get sick (and potentially deathly ill) first.
I don’t think any nation’s health authorities are recommending that anyone go out and catch covid. That would be absurd. But most do take into account your past infections when recommending future actions.
However, the CDC is ignoring infection-based immunity in making timing recommendations regarding when to get a booster. I believe most countries ask “when were you last exposed”, not “when were you last vaccinated” when recommending boosters. The former is the better question, because while a vaccine right after recovering from an infection isn’t harmful, it’s basically wasted. You’d do better to save your place in line (so to speak) until it will do you more good. BECAUSE infection-based immunity also wanes over time.
I’ve decided to get the vaccine in early November. That’ll be about two and a half months since I had COVID and two weeks before I attend a large family reunion for Thanksgiving. Seems like a good compromise.
The CDC follows the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)'s recommendations on this and other vaccination issues. From ACIP:
At a minimum, defer any COVID-19 vaccination, including bivalent booster vaccination, at least until recovery from the acute illness (if symptoms were present) and criteria to discontinue isolation have been met.
In addition, people who recently had SARS-CoV-2 infection may consider delaying any COVID-19 vaccination, including bivalent booster vaccination, by 3 months from symptom onset or positive test (if infection was asymptomatic).
Individual factors such as risk of COVID-19 severe disease, COVID-19 community level, or characteristics of the predominant SARS-CoV-2 strain should be taken into account when determining whether to delay getting a COVID-19 vaccination after infection.
In addition, people who recently had SARS-CoV-2 infection may consider delaying any COVID-19 vaccination, including bivalent booster vaccination, by 3 months from symptom onset or positive test (if infection was asymptomatic).