The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that all children 6 months and older should be vaccinated with the latest Covid-19 vaccine to help reduce the risk of coronavirus causing serious illness, hospitalization or death.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, the agency’s director, signed off on the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccine will be available this week, the CDC said in a press release.
“Vaccination remains the best way to prevent hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19,” the agency said.” Vaccination also reduces your chances of being affected by long COVID, which can occur during or after an acute infection and last longer. If you haven’t been vaccinated with COVID-19 within the past two months, protect yourself by getting the latest COVID-19 vaccine this fall and winter.
CDC and Commission endorsement means these vaccines will be covered by public and private insurance plans.
The new vaccines have been updated to protect against the currently prevalent virus that causes COVID-19.
They teach the immune system to recognize the spike proteins of the XBB.1.5 viruses, which are still prevalent and have produced a series of new variants that now dominate the spread of Covid-19. Unlike last year’s vaccine, which contained two strains of the virus, the new vaccine contains only one. These older vaccines are no longer authorized for use in the United States.
The introduction of the updated vaccine comes at a time when Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths are on the rise in late summer.
The latest CDC data show a 9 percent increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations last week over the previous week. Despite the rise, hospitalizations are still only about half of what they were at their peak last winter. weekly Covid-19 deaths also climbed in August.
New data presented to the advisory committee Tuesday by Dr. Fiona Havers of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases show that the highest rates of hospitalization and death are in very old and very young populations: adults older than 75 and infants younger than 6 months of age. All other groups are at lower risk for serious outcomes.
In addition, clinical trial data presented Tuesday on the effectiveness of the latest vaccine did not include children under the age of 12, making ACIP member Dr. Pablo Sanchez, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio, uneasy about recommending the vaccine as a package to all children 6 months and older. He was the only one on the committee to vote against it.
“I just want to be clear,” Sanchez said, “that I am not opposed to this vaccine.” The limited data available does look good.
“We have extremely limited data on children …… I think that data needs to be …… available to parents,” he said in explaining his unease.
Other members argued that making more targeted risk-based recommendations requiring certain groups to discuss Covid-19 with their health care providers before receiving it would unnecessarily limit people’s access to the most up-to-date vaccine.
“There is no group of people who are clearly not at risk from Covid,” said Dr. Sandra Freihofer, who represented the American Medical Association at the meeting.” Even children and adults without underlying diseases can develop serious illnesses as a result of Covid immunization.
As immunity begins to weaken and new variants emerge, we are all becoming more susceptible to infection, and this is likely to increase over time, Freihofer said.
“Today’s discussion gives me great confidence that this new vaccine will help protect us from Covid, and I strongly encourage the ACIP to vote for a universal recommendation for children 6 months and older,” she said in the discussion leading up to the vote.
Clinical studies presented Tuesday by Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax showed that all of the updated vaccines significantly boosted antibodies against currently prevalent variants of the coronavirus, suggesting that they will provide good protection against the major variants.
Two mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were approved and licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday. A third, updated vaccine manufactured by Novavax is still under review by the FDA, so ACIP could not make a specific recommendation regarding its use.
However, based on the wording of the ballot, the committee agreed to recommend any licensed or approved XBB-containing vaccine, so if the FDA approves such a vaccine, the committee will not need to meet again to consider it, as it is expected that the FDA will approve the vaccine.
The committee stated that all persons 5 years of age and older should receive at least one dose of the updated mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 this year.
Children aged 6 months to 4 years, who may be receiving the vaccine for the first time, should receive two doses of the Moderna vaccine and three doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, with at least one of those doses being the 2023 update.
The committee also made recommendations for people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised. Immunocompromised individuals should have received at least three doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, at least one of which was updated for 2023. They also have the option of getting another update vaccine later in the year.
The committee has not yet decided whether seniors 65 and older will need another dose of the updated vaccine in a few months. Last spring, seniors were eligible to receive a second dose of the bivalent Covid-19 vaccine.
It was the first time the Covid-19 vaccine was commercially available. The manufacturer announced the list price of its vaccine Tuesday, with a wholesale price of $120 to $130 per dose.
Under the Affordable Care Act, many commercial insurance plans offered through the government or employers are required to provide the vaccine for free. As a result, some people will still have to pay out of pocket for the Covid-19 vaccine.
This news is republished from CNN Health.
Hongguan care about your health.
See more Hongguan Product→https://www.hgcmedical.com/products/
If there are any needs of medical comsumables, please feel free to contact us.
hongguanmedical@outlook.com
Post time: Sep-14-2023