The short answer: Anyone age 12 or older who has completed a series of primary immunizations, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson tells CNBC Make It. It’s unlikely to matter whether or not you’ve received other boosters in the past, the spokesperson says — but if you’re unvaccinated, you won’t qualify for the updated formula until you’ve completed a primary series of existing Covid vaccines. The longer answer is somewhat more complicated, because it depends on which booster shots are approved and when. Pfizer’s “bivalent” shot, which targets both the original Covid strain and omicron’s BA.5 subvariant, is expected to be approved first. The CDC says it will likely come with a wide range of eligibility: The full pool of vaccinated Americans age 12 and older. Moderna’s bivalent shot is expected to follow later, likely in October. It will come with a somewhat narrower range of eligibility, at least initially: vaccinated people age 18 and older. For both shots, younger pediatric age groups could become eligible later, the CDC says. These predictions are tentative, at least for now. A person familiar with the matter told NBC News on Wednesday that it will depend on how much supply Pfizer and Moderna are able to build and market by next month. If this supply is limited, vaccines could first be available to those most at risk, such as the elderly and the immunocompromised. Federal health officials believe the vaccines will provide the best level of protection against the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant to date, especially in the fall and winter when a large wave of Covid infections is expected to hit the U.S. “It’s going to be very important this fall and winter that people get the new vaccine. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s co-ordinator of the Covid response, at a virtual event hosted by by the US Chamber. Commercial Institution on Tuesday.
Should I get a fourth booster now or wait for the omicron shots?
If you haven’t received your second booster yet, Jha’s advice is to get it now instead of waiting for updated boosters. This advice could apply to many people: Among adults 50 and older who are eligible for a second booster dose, only 33.2% have received it, according to the most recent CDC data. “My general feeling is, there’s no need to wait, go get it, even if we’re only a few weeks away,” Jha said at the Chamber event. He added that people who are boosted now will still be able to get the BA.5 vaccine in a few months when their immunity from the booster wears off. Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, also stressed that all Americans should be vaccinated and boosted now if they’re not up to date, noting that the nation’s approved vaccines still work great at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death. . “If [people] don’t get vaccinated or boosted, they’re going to be in trouble,” Fauci told Los Angeles radio station KNX News 97.1’s “KNX In Depth” earlier this month. When it comes to the BA.5 vaccine, experts are split on whether you should get it as soon as you’re eligible or wait to get it until cases increase in the fall or winter in an effort to maximize your immune boost you in these critical months. . Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser on President Biden’s Covid response team, tweeted on Friday that some experts — including Fauci and Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco — support the previous approach. “The other view is the one no one wants to go on the record for,” Slavitt wrote. “It’s that since we don’t know the duration of the aid, why not wait until October?” “For lower-risk people who want to have 4 months of coverage (a reasonable minimum expectation), some may choose to wait,” Slavitt added. Subscribe Now: Get smarter about your money and your career with our weekly newsletter Dont miss: BA.5 boosters could be here within the next 3 weeks, Dr Ja says: ‘These are major upgrades to our vaccines’ Dr. Fauci: BA.5-specific booster shots are country’s ‘best guess’ to tackle Covid this fall
