COVID vaccines may roll out within days, officials say

CDC to decide on vaccine eligibility

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new round of COVID boosters on Monday that will arrive alongside the seasonal flu vaccine and shots to protect infants and older adults from RSV, a potentially lethal respiratory virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to follow up on Tuesday with an advisory meeting to discuss who should get the new shots, by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. After a final decision by the CDC’s director, millions of doses will be shipped to pharmacies, clinics, and health systems nationwide within days.

As COVID cases creep up, the trifecta of prevention measures could portend the first winter of the decade without a crush of patients overwhelming some hospitals. But a healthy winter is far from a lock; in the last year, the updated COVID vaccine made it into the arms of only 20 percent of adults in the United States.

Some experts view that statistic with little alarm because the number of COVID deaths slowed considerably over the last year, thanks to an increasingly immune population and higher vaccine rates among older Americans. Others see this year as an opportunity to protect more vulnerable people from severe illness or death.

“Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine expert.

The FDA granted full approval for the new formulas for people who are 12 and older and authorized them to protect infants six months and older and children through age 11. The Pfizer shot was authorized in the European Union for ages six months and older on Aug. 31.

COVID vaccines are just rolling out in the United Kingdom this week, with the first doses going to the highest risk people in care homes, ages 65 and over, as well as health and social care staff members.

The vaccine campaign will also be the first since the end of the public health emergency, which expired in May. In previous years, the US government bought hundreds of millions of vaccine doses and distributed them for free.

This year, private insurance and government payers including Medicare that cover the vast majority of Americans are expected to provide the vaccines to people for free.

But the question remains whether the private market of hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies will be able to calibrate their vaccine orders to stock a realistic supply. Experts are uncertain how much demand there will be for the latest shots.

“There could be a period in here where things are a little bit chaotic, and that’s never a good situation,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, a public health group.

Once the CDC signs off, the Biden administration plans to urge the public to get their COVID and flu shots at the same time, a practice that has been studied and considered by some experts to be safe. It’s a messaging effort they expect to share with major vaccine makers, which will be marketing the COVID doses commercially for the first time.

Walgreens and CVS said they both already have the updated flu and RSV shots available. Dr. Kevin Ban, Walgreens’ chief medical officer, said the chain would have the new COVID shots on hand “as soon as possible.” A CVS spokesperson said doses could be arriving later this week. Representatives of both chains said the COVID shot would be available at no cost to all who are eligible under the CDC guidelines.

Targeted populations most certainly will include people 65 and older as well as those who are immunocompromised.