The Food and Drug Administration on Monday greenlighted updated Covid boosters from Pfizer and Moderna. The shots, which are formulated to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant, are expected to be available later this week, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off.
Anyone age 5 and older can get an updated booster shot from either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, regardless of whether they were previously vaccinated, the FDA said in a statement. People who have been vaccinated should wait at least two months before getting the updated booster.
The boosters come as Covid cases are rising in the U.S., driven by a slew of subvariants. Officials hope that the boosters can blunt a possible spike in winter illness.
For the first time since the vaccines became available, the federal government will not cover the cost of the shots.
Pfizer and Moderna have said they are pricing each vaccine dose at over $100.
Jennifer Kates, director of the Global Health & HIV Policy Program at the nonprofit KFF, said most people with private and public health insurance should continue to pay nothing out of pocket for the boosters — as long as they stick with an in-network provider.
People who don’t have insurance — an estimated 30 million in the U.S. — should be able to get a booster for free at community health centers. Additionally, the Biden administration is also rolling out a “bridge” program that will offer uninsured people access to free boosters at least through the end of 2024. Those who don’t know or don’t have access to these resources may have to pay out of pocket, she said.
mRNA wonderful stuff. I’ll get my flu and booster at the same time like last year. Throw in RSV for shits and giggles.
That’s the reason I’ve held off on the flu shot, wanted to get that and my covid booster together.
Assuming that the current covid wave doesn’t turn into a full-on surge, my plan is:
Get rsv vaccine this week. It’s good for over a year so there’s no worry about it fading at an inconvenient time, and it gets the shot out of the way. Plus there’s some research indicating that spacing adult vaccines apart very slightly improves their efficacy.
Get covid vaccine sometime in the last ten days of October (assuming no covid surge in the meantime). The mRNA vaccines seem to be most efficient during the first four months, so a late October shot gives me full protection for all the winter holidays, as well as the main heating season (Nov-Feb, inclusive).
Get flu vaccine first week of November. Flu vaccines seem to be most effective for three months, so that gives me the most protection from Thanksgiving through Valentine’s Day, plus the little boost from spacing out the shots.
I’m going with GSK’s Arexvy for RSV (seems a bit more effective than the other two options), Moderna for covid (slightly stronger than Pfizer), and Sanofi’s FluBlok for the flu (again, it’s the strongest vaccine available for my age group).
Edit: my scheduling is based on my own vaccine and health history, and local virus circulation. If your area is having a surge, if you’re under-vaccinated, if you have medical issues, you should consider your own situation to figure out your own schedule.
Green lighted is a weird word. Greenlit? Approved?
The prescriptivist in me thinks it should be “greenlit”, though since “lighted” is perfectly valid, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with “greenlighted” either.
I find the fact that a household name brand news agency used “greenlighted” as if it were correct English mildly infuriating.
This country blows.
I don’t know why you are being downvoted. The research that made these vaccines came from public funding but they’re gonna sell it back to us at $100 a pop.
It’s fucking criminal and should be treated as such. Fucking highway robbery.
It’s all a giant shell game to obfuscate that it’s just slavery with more steps.
The research that made these vaccines came from public funding but they’re gonna sell it back to us at $100 a pop.
Pfizer actually didn’t accept any US government money for their covid vaccine research.
Edited for clarification
Stop repeating fucking lies from giant corporations. Jesus tittyfucking Christ.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8426978/
Pfizer’s often‐repeated statement that it invested ~ $2 billion and did not receive any government research funding to develop its vaccine paints an incomplete picture, because its partner BioNTech received $445 million in funding from the German government to assist with COVID‐19 vaccine development. BioNTech is now licensing the NIH’s patented pre‐fusion spike protein technology.
Sounds like some of the money they “invested” was spent on licensing a publicly funded patent.
Sorry, USA-centrism again. [Are Germans getting charged $100 for their covid vaccines this year? Because I was responding to the OP comment of “they’re gonna sell it back to us at $100 a pop”.]. Anyway, to clarify: Pfizer did not accept any US government money for their covid vaccine research.
To save time for the next step of this disagreement, you’re going to say that Pfizer did accept US government money during the covid vaccine research period, and I’m going to point out that was part of a pre-purchase agreement where the US would buy up to 100 million doses of the vaccine was approved. sigh Are we done here?
Yeah, we’re done here where someone thinks lifesaving medicine is worth holding above people’s heads like a threat.
Sir Frederick Banting rolling in his fucking grave.
I mean, we should have a national healthcare system. But we don’t. So the shit needs to be paid for. That’s how this works.
