The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued recommendations for use of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 bivalent vaccines to help protect Americans from COVID-19. Also known as “updated boosters”, the vaccines target multiple strains of COVID-19, the original strain of the virus and 2 of the Omicron variants (BA.4 and BA.5). The Omicron variants are currently the most widespread variants in the world.
The updated boosters could begin shipping to states as early as Friday. However, most providers will start to see vaccines arrive the week of 09/12/2022. Providers such as local health departments, pharmacies and doctor’s offices will begin offering these boosters over the next several days to weeks.
Those who are eligible to receive a bivalent booster dose right now are as follows:
Individuals 18 years of age and older are eligible for the updated Moderna booster if it has been at least 2 months since they completed their primary vaccination series or received a booster dose.
Individuals 12 years of age and older are eligible for the updated Pfizer-BioNTech booster if it has been at least 2 months since they completed their primary vaccination series or received a booster dose.
Anyone who has an appointment to get a monovalent booster should reschedule for when bivalent doses are in stock and can be administered.
Individuals may choose to receive either the Pfizer or Moderna bivalent booster, regardless of which primary series vaccine or original booster dose they had previously. The current monovalent booster will no longer be available to people 12 and older; the FDA is removing authorization for those boosters to reduce provider confusion for staff administering vaccines. However, children ages 5-11 may still get the monovalent boosters at this time, and until a bivalent vaccine is authorized and recommended for this age group.
Original source can be found here.
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