CDC endorses omicron-targeting COVID boosters, kicking off fall vaccination campaign

Thursday evening the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., and the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel both signed off on updated COVID-19 vaccine boosters, the final hurdle before a nationwide rollout that's expected to begin next week.

The new shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are formulated to target the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant, which are currently circulating. The boosters had received an all-clear from the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.

“The updated COVID-19 boosters … can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants,” Walensky said in her endorsement statement released Thursday. “This recommendation followed a comprehensive scientific evaluation and robust scientific discussion. If you are eligible, there is no bad time to get your COVID-19 booster and I strongly encourage you to receive it.”

In line with the emergency authorizations’ indications and the advisory panel’s recommendations, the CDC endorsed use of the updated Pfizer-BioNTech booster for people aged 12 years and older and the new Moderna shot for those 18 years and older.

Individuals in these age groups are eligible for the booster if it has been at least two months since the completion of their primary vaccine series or their most recent booster dose, according to the agency.

“In the coming weeks, CDC also expects to recommend updated COVID-19 boosters for other pediatric groups,” the agency wrote in the endorsement announcement. “When data are available and FDA authorizes these other types of COVID-19 boosters, CDC will quickly move to help make them available in the United States.”

More than 224 million people have received their entire initial series, according to CDC data. Nearly 109 million have received a first booster dose while 22 million received a second booster (for which recommendations have so far been limited).

Vaccine makers have said they are prepared to begin shipping millions of doses upon the government’s go-ahead. With the CDC’s endorsement, deliveries are already arriving at some pharmacies and should reach many providers and other vaccine administers within days, Walensky told press Friday.

The advisory panel’s deliberations centered on the limited clinical data available for the boosters and the potential human cost of waiting until later this year for additional evidence. They also discussed the reasoning behind the two-month delay and the risk of public confusion due to different eligibility requirements for the two vaccines.

Ultimately, the group ended their deliberations with a 13-1 vote in favor of recommending the updated vaccines.

This fall and early winter are likely to be the last vaccine push fully bankrolled by the federal government.

Health and Human Services said earlier this week that it expects to run out of funds to purchase and distribute COVID-19 vaccines “as early as January 2023,” after which it plans to transition rollout to the commercial market. This also extends to therapeutics, some of which the department said it has already successfully handed over to the private sector.