The Biden administration plans to urge all Americans to get a booster shot for the coronavirus this autumn to counter a new wave of infections, a White House official said on Sunday.

The official said that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are reporting an increase in infections and hospital admissions from the virus, overall levels remain low.

On Thursday, Moderna (MRNA.O) said initial data showed its updated COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the “Eris” and “Fornax” subvariants in humans.

Moderna and other COVID-19 vaccine makers Novavax (NVAX.O), Pfizer (PFE.N) and German partner BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) have created versions of their shots aimed at the XBB.1.5 subvariant.

Pending approval from health regulators in the United States and Europe, the companies expect the updated shots to be available in the coming weeks for the autumn vaccination season.

We will be encouraging all Americans to get those boosters in addition to flu shots and RSV shots,” the official said, referring to the Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Something tells me that this is going to be a hard sell.

    I think most people are out of pandemic-mode already even if the pandemic isn’t done with us. And while it should be easier to sell the idea of getting a booster to people since there weren’t piles of dead bodies from the vaccines like the anti-vaxx people predicted, but that kind of logic doesn’t work on folks. The anti-vaxx people were proven wrong, and yet somehow those people are going to claim they were correct and be even more adamant about not getting the vaccines this time.