2023-2024 COVID-19 Vaccines : What You Need To Know!

Dr. Adrian Wong

1 year ago

The FDA just approved two new 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines, which the CDC is now recommending for everyone 6 months and older!

Here is what you need to know about these new COVID-19 vaccines for 2023-2024!

FDA Approves Two 2023-2024 COVID-19 Vaccines!

On September 11, 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for 2023-2024.

In tandem, the US FDA also removed authorisation for the previous Pfizer and Moderna Bivalent vaccine in the United States.

FDA Takes Action on Updated mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines to Better Protect Against Currently Circulating Variants

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took action approving and authorizing for emergency use updated COVID-19 vaccines formulated to more closely target currently circulating variants and to provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.

Today’s actions relate to updated mRNA vaccines for 2023-2024 manufactured by ModernaTX Inc. and Pfizer Inc. Consistent with the totality of the evidence and input from the FDA’s expert advisors, these vaccines have been updated to include a monovalent (single) component that corresponds to the Omicron variant XBB.1.5.

Individuals 5 years of age and older regardless of previous vaccination are eligible to receive a single dose of an updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccine at least 2 months since the last dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.
Individuals 6 months through 4 years of age who have previously been vaccinated against COVID-19 are eligible to receive one or two doses of an updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (timing and number of doses to administer depends on the previous COVID-19 vaccine received).
Unvaccinated individuals 6 months through 4 years of age are eligible to receive three doses of the updated authorized Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine or two doses of the updated authorized Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine.
The FDA is confident in the safety and effectiveness of these updated vaccines and the agency’s benefit-risk assessment demonstrates that the benefits of these vaccines for individuals 6 months of age and older outweigh their risks.
Individuals who receive an updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may experience similar side effects as those reported by individuals who previously received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as described in the respective prescribing information or fact sheets.
The updated vaccines are expected to provide good protection against COVID-19 from the currently circulating variants. Barring the emergence of a markedly more virulent variant, the FDA anticipates that the composition of COVID-19 vaccines may need to be updated annually, as is done for the seasonal influenza vaccine.

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You may not notice but the FDA is not calling these vaccines a “booster dose”. Instead, both vaccines are considered as “updated vaccines” that will better target the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 virus variants.

Both 2023-2024 updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are based on the same mRNA vaccine technology as their original and bivalent vaccines. But the updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines no longer targets the original, ancestral SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Instead, they both target the XBB.1.5 variant, which was dominant when these vaccines were developed. Even though the XBB.1.5 variant is no longer the dominant variant, the FDA has determined that it is similar enough to most prevailing variants to offer good cross-protection.

As before, these updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines are designed to prevent death and severe disease, and not avoid mild disease or symptomatic infections.

The FDA is still reviewing a third updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax. The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine does not use mRNA, and is based on a synthetic spike protein with an adjuvant instead.

CDC Recommends 2023-2024 COVID-19 Vaccines!

On Tuesday, September 12, 2023, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially recommended that everyone 6 months and older get the updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines that were just approved by the US FDA.

CDC Recommends Updated COVID-19 Vaccine for Fall/Winter Virus Season

CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older get an updated COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 illness this fall and winter. Updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna will be available later this week.

Vaccination remains the best protection against COVID-19-related hospitalization and death. Vaccination also reduces your chance of suffering the effects of Long COVID, which can develop during or following acute infection and last for an extended duration.  If you have not received a COVID-19 vaccine in the past 2 months, get an updated COVID-19 vaccine to protect yourself this fall and winter.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is always changing, and protection from COVID-19 vaccines declines over time. Receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine can restore protection and provide enhanced protection against the variants currently responsible for most infections and hospitalizations in the United States.

Last season, those who received a 2022-2023 COVID-19 vaccine saw greater protection against illness and hospitalization than those who did not receive a 2022-2023 vaccine.  To date, hundreds of millions of people have safely received a COVID-19 vaccine under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history.

This recommendation came after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was presented with new data which showed that the highest rates of hospitalisation and deaths from COVID-19 were for the very old – adults over 75, and the very young – infants younger than 6 months.

CDC Recommendations For 2023-2024 COVID-19 Vaccines

CDC just released its recommendations for who should get the 2023-2024 updated COVID-19 vaccines:

Everyone 6 Years And Older

The CDC recommends that everyone 6 years and older should get one dose of the updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, regardless of whether they received any original COVID-19 vaccine in the past or not.

People 65 Years And Older

People who are 65 years and older may get one additional dose of the updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, four or more months after receiving the first dose.

Immunocompromised People

People who are moderately or severely-immunocompromised may get one additional dose of the updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, two or more months after receiving the first dose.

Unvaccinated Children 6 Months To 4 Years (Pfizer)

The CDC is recommending three doses of the updated Pfizer-BioNTech 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines:

First dose of the 2023-2024 Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
Second dose : 3-8 weeks after first dose
Third dose : at least 8 weeks after second dose

Vaccinated Children 6 Months To 4 Years (Pfizer)

The CDC is recommending that children who received the original Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine should receive these updated doses:

3 doses of the original vaccine : get one updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose
2 doses of the original vaccine : get one updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose
1 dose of the original vaccine : get two updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses
2 doses of the original vaccine + bivalent booster : no need for updated vaccine

Unvaccinated 5 Year Old Children (Pfizer)

The CDC is recommending that unvaccinated 5 year-old children should receive one dose of the updated 2023-2024 Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Vaccinated 5 Year Old Children (Pfizer)

The CDC is recommending that 5 year-old children who received the original Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine should receive one dose of the updated vaccine:

1 or more doses of the original vaccine : get one updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine dose

Unvaccinated Children 6 Months To 5 Years (Moderna)

The CDC is recommending two doses of the updated Moderna 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines:

First dose of the 2023-2024 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
Second dose : 4-8 weeks after first dose

Vaccinated Children 6 Months To 5 Years (Moderna)

The CDC is recommending that children who received the original Moderna COVID-19 vaccine should receive these updated doses:

2 doses of the original vaccine : get one updated Moderna vaccine dose
1 dose of the original vaccine : get two updated Moderna vaccine doses
2 doses of the original vaccine + bivalent booster : no need for updated vaccine

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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