Fall COVID-19 boosters will be available soon. This is a notable shift in the pandemic response, as we’ve been using the same vaccine formula throughout the pandemic—one created in early 2020 to fight against the original Wuhan variant. The FDA and CDC (and their external scientific advisory committees)
Katelyn, Your updates are always very informative and easily understood. My daughter-in-law recommended I subscribe and I am glad I did! She is a research biologist at the CDC in Atlanta. I was wondering if I should wait until October to get both the flu and new BA5 booster at the same time. Then you also had the same question near the end of today’s post! I am 73 and leaning towards waiting until October. I have always gotten my flu shot then and it has been effective. Thank you for your good work!
“Congress has stopped funding the coronavirus response and has invested very little into pandemic preparedness.“
The lack of funding for pandemic preparation planning frightens me as much as the early days of the pandemic did. We’re facing multiple public health emergencies yet, despite Administration requests there’s no bipartisan support to address the needed planning efforts.
I re-read your Apr 6th post on "Original Antigenic Sin" (OAS). Your bottom line then was "there is no definitive evidence of OAS in humans being an important concern for COVID-19." Any updates? Will Pfizer and Moderna's data on their bivalent vaccine give any clues? Thanks very much for your dedication, hard work, collaboration with others, and sharing the product with all of us.
The last paragraph got me too. Budgeting is applied ethics. The question arises of what would be so wrong in reallocating a few score billions of dollars, currently earmarked for the production of bombs, bullets, tanks, i.e. things that kill people, to public health, i.e. the endeavor to save lives?? What is our true priority? Killing people or saving them?
From your closing important note: "Congress has stopped funding the coronavirus response and has invested very little into pandemic preparedness." What?!?! Have we learned nothing then?? Being prepared and responding with agility is key. And we know Covid and its mutations are still out there, along with who knows what else. So why not put the time and money into being ready? This is VERY frustrating to hear!!!
Is there information on how long people need to wait between getting the old booster and getting this new one? I have read everything from 4-6 weeks between boosters to 4 months.
A subset of the population cannot take the mRNA vaccines due to deleterious side effects. What’s available or in the works for them? Evusheld? protein vaccines (the long awaited but never released Novovax)? living with fingers crossed?
Hello, Dr. Jetelina. Could you answer a question (semi-related to boosters), either here or in a later edition?
I am hearing that immunity lasts only about a month after covid infection. But in the next breath, the doctors are saying that "hybrid immunity" (immunity from a vaccine + prior infection) basically gives you superpowers to fight infection. So, which is it?
Is the month or so of immunity after infection only for people who are not vaccinated/boosted? Because then hybrid immunity would not be reliable. I don't see anyone parsing the difference between vaccinated/boosted and not for how long immunity lasts. Thank you!
That last paragraph got me. I’m hopeful for the bivalent vaccine though. This will require a new level of education for the public, especially relative to first timers. Though at this point, I doubt many will finally succumb to “the jab.”
Thank you for another insightful piece. You write "Vaccine recommendations do not equal vaccination." - that's true, but it's important to note that official recommendations do very much impact what's covered by insurance, with no co-pays. The Affordable Care Act is unambiguous about preventative care being fully covered by all private and public health insurance - and this includes any and all vaccines affirmatively recommended by ACIP.
There is a well written piece on monitoring for common characteristics in variations which arise in immunocompromised individuals as a possible way to target vaccines. It is in the Science News COVID newsletter today:
Thanks Katelyn. It occurs to me that perhaps the mutation rate may be slowing a little? It appears we went from Wuhan through to BA.5 pretty quickly, but it seems a while since we had a new VOC. I would welcome your thoughts on this. Here in Australia we are coming out of the latest Omicron wave and Spring is coming so we are hoping for a summer break, health care workers badly need a rest. All the best for winter for all in the Nth Hemisphere.
I just read the news today that Jill Biden has experienced a Paxlovid rebound. Just like the President. Just like Fauci.
Clearly, the 2% rebound rate from Pfizer is waaay too low. Does the “2% myth” persist in an effort to “encourage” certain desired behavior? Don’t the American people deserve to know the true number so they can assess individual risk/benefit and make informed decisions?
When transparency is lacking, it’s human nature to question the veracity of everything else that’s being said.
Katelyn, Your updates are always very informative and easily understood. My daughter-in-law recommended I subscribe and I am glad I did! She is a research biologist at the CDC in Atlanta. I was wondering if I should wait until October to get both the flu and new BA5 booster at the same time. Then you also had the same question near the end of today’s post! I am 73 and leaning towards waiting until October. I have always gotten my flu shot then and it has been effective. Thank you for your good work!
“Congress has stopped funding the coronavirus response and has invested very little into pandemic preparedness.“
The lack of funding for pandemic preparation planning frightens me as much as the early days of the pandemic did. We’re facing multiple public health emergencies yet, despite Administration requests there’s no bipartisan support to address the needed planning efforts.
I re-read your Apr 6th post on "Original Antigenic Sin" (OAS). Your bottom line then was "there is no definitive evidence of OAS in humans being an important concern for COVID-19." Any updates? Will Pfizer and Moderna's data on their bivalent vaccine give any clues? Thanks very much for your dedication, hard work, collaboration with others, and sharing the product with all of us.
The last paragraph got me too. Budgeting is applied ethics. The question arises of what would be so wrong in reallocating a few score billions of dollars, currently earmarked for the production of bombs, bullets, tanks, i.e. things that kill people, to public health, i.e. the endeavor to save lives?? What is our true priority? Killing people or saving them?
From your closing important note: "Congress has stopped funding the coronavirus response and has invested very little into pandemic preparedness." What?!?! Have we learned nothing then?? Being prepared and responding with agility is key. And we know Covid and its mutations are still out there, along with who knows what else. So why not put the time and money into being ready? This is VERY frustrating to hear!!!
Is there information on how long people need to wait between getting the old booster and getting this new one? I have read everything from 4-6 weeks between boosters to 4 months.
A subset of the population cannot take the mRNA vaccines due to deleterious side effects. What’s available or in the works for them? Evusheld? protein vaccines (the long awaited but never released Novovax)? living with fingers crossed?
Hello, Dr. Jetelina. Could you answer a question (semi-related to boosters), either here or in a later edition?
I am hearing that immunity lasts only about a month after covid infection. But in the next breath, the doctors are saying that "hybrid immunity" (immunity from a vaccine + prior infection) basically gives you superpowers to fight infection. So, which is it?
Is the month or so of immunity after infection only for people who are not vaccinated/boosted? Because then hybrid immunity would not be reliable. I don't see anyone parsing the difference between vaccinated/boosted and not for how long immunity lasts. Thank you!
That last paragraph got me. I’m hopeful for the bivalent vaccine though. This will require a new level of education for the public, especially relative to first timers. Though at this point, I doubt many will finally succumb to “the jab.”
Thank you for another insightful piece. You write "Vaccine recommendations do not equal vaccination." - that's true, but it's important to note that official recommendations do very much impact what's covered by insurance, with no co-pays. The Affordable Care Act is unambiguous about preventative care being fully covered by all private and public health insurance - and this includes any and all vaccines affirmatively recommended by ACIP.
There is a well written piece on monitoring for common characteristics in variations which arise in immunocompromised individuals as a possible way to target vaccines. It is in the Science News COVID newsletter today:
http://view.societyforscience-email.com/?qs=4256ea4fcad2019385ec79d854fef655bf48ff039acb6df53ca486a9f69f607eecdf3e669a9406f45948e8b98881fab0c3076acdd65984ec8668d2caa001e7feb62c1e5caca1ce90ce20644287fef5ea
Thanks Katelyn. It occurs to me that perhaps the mutation rate may be slowing a little? It appears we went from Wuhan through to BA.5 pretty quickly, but it seems a while since we had a new VOC. I would welcome your thoughts on this. Here in Australia we are coming out of the latest Omicron wave and Spring is coming so we are hoping for a summer break, health care workers badly need a rest. All the best for winter for all in the Nth Hemisphere.
I just read the news today that Jill Biden has experienced a Paxlovid rebound. Just like the President. Just like Fauci.
Clearly, the 2% rebound rate from Pfizer is waaay too low. Does the “2% myth” persist in an effort to “encourage” certain desired behavior? Don’t the American people deserve to know the true number so they can assess individual risk/benefit and make informed decisions?
When transparency is lacking, it’s human nature to question the veracity of everything else that’s being said.
Is that graphic saying that the monovalent booster is more than 2x as effective as the bivalent one, against BA.4/5?
(6.2 fold increase for monovalent versus 2.6 fold increase for bivalent)
What are the three categories of the last graph? (Green, Orange, and Purple).
It's great to see data, but we need to be able to understand what we are looking at.
Thanks!
Of course I'll jump right on the booster - right before my jury duty. Clearly the time to get a booster is immediately before
(a) vaccines stop being free
(b) before I'm required, by law, to spend hours on end with random strangers, and no mask mandate
At any given time, it's easier to get a booster than it is to get a doctor to write a note requesting an excuse from jury duty.