What to know about Covid-19 boosters

Authorization for next round of shots for people 12 and older could happen by end of next week; Moderna suing Pfizer over mRNA vaccine patents

Although the FDA and CDC have not yet authorized or recommended the new Covid-19 boosters, all the pieces are lining up for a Fall booster campaign to begin right after Labor Day. The shots are likely to be recommended for most adults and teens.

Unlike previous boosters, the new ones are “bivalent” vaccines, which means that they contain the original Covid-19 vaccine plus new formulations targeting the BA4 and BA5 omicron variants.

Moderna submitted its final set of data to support an Emergency Use Authorization to the FDA on August 23. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech submitted their data on August 23. The Moderna booster would be for people 18 and older, while Pfizer requested authorization for use in people 12 and older.

The specific guidelines won’t be issued until the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meets on September 1 and 2. The U.S. government has already purchased millions of doses, which will be distributed to pharmacies and other vaccination sites as soon as the CDC director acts on the ACIP recommendation.

Virologist Angela Rasmussen of the University of Saskatchewan says that almost everyone should get one of the new boosters — even if you had Covid recently. Although three shots of the original vaccine are highly effective at preventing severe Covid-19, including the omicron variant, the new shots will both increase that immune response and generate omicron-specific immunity.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Rasmussen for the second edition of The Communications Golden Hour® guide for emergency communications. The new edition includes sections on business, health, public health and police public information. Want to know more? Please sign up here. Now that the manuscript is completed, I’ll be sharing much more about this in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Moderna says it will file lawsuits against Pfizer in the United States and Germany for infringing on its patents for mRNA vaccine technology. The company says it will not seek to halt Pfizer’s production or distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

That’s it for now. Questions? Comments? Please share.