The federal government and vaccine makers are getting a new COVID-19 vaccine ready for the fall. An advisory panel at the FDA this week voted on which strains of the virus to target in an updated formulation for the fall. And representatives from vaccine manufacturers Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax told the panel they can get shots in arms by September.
So its a good time to start thinking about where you and your loved ones are at on your COVID-19 vaccines. Here is some advice from public health experts.
COVID-19 cases are ticking up again after reaching a seasonal low in April. Greater Boston wastewater data show a similar trend to what we saw last summer when there was a slow climb into early fall. And, if this winter is like the last two, we can expect a short-lived spike in cases after holiday get-togethers.
Dr. Shira Doron, chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine, says its still unclear to her what factors could be behind that apparent pattern.
Why have we been seeing a spike in the winter and a summer wave? Is it the season? Is it the weather? Is it human behavior related to weather or holidays? Or is it simply variant evolution? said Doron. ... Im not sure we can totally predict [patterns] yet. Its still early days of COVID in the grand scheme of things, compared to something like influenza.
Theres been a lot of talk about what have been dubbed FLiRT variants, an acronym based off letter abbreviations for the virus mutations. All FLiRT variants are in the JN.1 family itself a subvariant of omicron.
The significance of [the FLiRT variants] is that they are currently the predominant variant of SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, that is being transmitted at the current time over 75% of cases in the United States, said Dr. Cassandra Pierre, associate hospital epidemiologist and medical director of public health programs at Boston Medical Center. And there has been some concern that they may lead to an uptick of cases in the summer. But we are certainly concerned and have more confidence in saying that they probably will be contributing to an uptick in the respiratory season in the fall and winter of this year.
The FDA panel recommended the updated COVID vaccines target JN.1, the parent of all the FLiRT variants currently circulating. FDA adviser Dr. Melinda Wharton suggested that targeting the trunk of the tree would offer some protection against subvariants that may emerge.
Doron emphasizes that even though variants circulating in the fall and winter could be somewhat off-target, the updated vaccine will still offer good protection.
Whatever vaccine we give in the fall will help to protect the most vulnerable in the winter. Because ... boosters boost, Doron said. No matter what you give, you get a boost in immunity. And it doesnt have to match the currently circulating variants exactly for that to happen.
Pfizer and Moderna could be rolling out their new COVID vaccines by August. Novavaxs version might take a bit longer, since its based on older technology.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also expected to update its vaccine recommendations, which vary depending on age and health conditions. With the last COVID-19 booster, the CDC recommended people aged 65 years and older and people who are immunocompromised get additional doses for adequate protection.
Once youre eligible to receive a 2024 COVID booster, Doron and Pierre suggest timing it around when you want the best protection, which lasts 3-4 months after receiving a dose.
I personally do wait until early October so that Im covered for December and January, Pierre said. But I think certainly if youre going to be in your doctors office anyway in September, you might as well go ahead and get it and it will last you through the winter holidays.
Doron and Pierre say if youre coming due for another COVID-19 shot soon or if you missed your last dose, you might as well wait until the new formulation is ready. But individual needs vary, so check with your doctor for guidance.
Washington state is once again in the midst of a slight Covid-19 surge.
It's an indication that Covid is not yet acting like a seasonal respiratory virus, like flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which show up each year in the fall and winter.
The current uptick in Washington is nowhere near as big as the surges we've seen in past years. But it's still a relatively large increase over recent low levels.
The states virus dashboard shows emergency department (ED) visits up by about a third at the very end of May and the start of June. Hospitalizations are also rising.
Case numbers and prevalence of Covid-19 in the community are harder to track now than they were during the pandemic. The mass public testing sites are a thing of the past and many rapid tests taken at home go unreported.
However wastewater and hospitalization/ED visit rates are a reasonable proxy, said Pavitra Roychoudhury with the University of Washington Medicines virology lab.
Dr. Scott Lindquist, the Washington state epidemiologist, said Covid-19 levels are increasing in all those areas.
Lindquist said hes also seeing an increase when seeing patients, and anecdotally among family and friends.
What this means to me, and what I think the public needs to know, is that it is still here and we need to be careful, Lindquist said.
Lindquist said people need to implement lessons learned during the pandemic like staying home when sick and taking other precautions.
"I think it's time to use a mask if you're out in the public, Lindquist said. I am flying this weekend and I will wear a mask in the airport. I haven't been wearing it around the clock, but now that I'm seeing a little increase in Covid, I think it's reasonable to wear a mask in crowded settings."
Lindquist said it's important to protect those who are most vulnerable. Hes urging caution as people prepare to gather for upcoming celebrations like Fathers Day and graduations.
"If you have any of these respiratory symptoms and you're going to visit someone in your family that has an underlying condition, it's not a good time to do that," he said. "Or, if you do, washing your hands and wearing a mask."
Lindquist said staying up to date with vaccines remains an important step for individuals to protect themselves and others.
He said its likely that a new Covid-19 booster will be available and recommended in the fall.
For those who may be wondering if theyre due for another shot before then, especially those who may be at higher risk for complications from the virus like those who are 65 or older, Lindquist said its a good idea to check in with a health-care provider.
(CNN) The US Food and Drug AdministrationannouncedFriday that it had advised the makers of the Covid-19 vaccines to formulate their new shots to be a better match for the JN.1 lineage of the coronavirus. The JN.1 version of the virus, along with its descendants KP.2 and KP.3 are the most common strain of the virus that are getting people sick right now,according to theUS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The FDAscommittee of independent advisersvoted unanimously Wednesday to recommend that the agency tell vaccine manufacturers to update the Covid-19 shots for the fall.
The FDA told the advisory committee Wednesday that studies have shown that the currently availableCovid-19 vaccines appear to be less effective against the variants that are now in circulation. When manufacturers updated their vaccines last year to better match the variants that were in circulation then, the reformulated vaccines seemed to offer better protection, the FDA said.
Covid-19 cases are relatively low right now. Only 3% to 4% of people who are getting tested are positive for the virus,the CDC told the FDAs vaccine advisers this week. By comparison during the height of the pandemic, rates were at 30%. Hospitalization rates are also currently the lowest they have been since March 2020, the CDC told the committee.
Many people in the US have some protection against the virus through vaccination or prior infection, but that protection wanes over time.
In just the fall and winter months last season,Covid sent more than half a million people in the US to the hospital and killed 40,000 people, according to data presented at the meeting.
The people most likely to get seriously ill or die were unvaccinated, studies show, and amongthe children who were hospitalized, half had no underlying conditions.
Covid vaccine makers Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax said their new products should be ready by the fall.
The challenge may now be on how to convince people to get the Covid-19 vaccine. Only about 25% of adults have been vaccinated with the most recent version of the vaccine.
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WASHINGTON Dr. Anthony Fauci defended his decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, testifying before Congress about his work on the virus as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during two presidencies.
House Republicans who called the hearing grilled Fauci during the contentious three-hour session about the origins of COVID-19, which killed more than 1 million Americans, as well as Faucis role in the response. It was the first time Fauci, 83, who also served as chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, had appeared before Congress since leaving government employment in 2022.
Fauci repeatedly said he didnt conduct official business using personal email in response to allegations he did so to avoid oversight. He also said he has kept an open mind about the origins of the virus, and explained to members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic why guidance shifted so much during the first several months of the pandemic.
When youre dealing with a new outbreak, things change, Fauci said. The scientific process collects the information that will allow you, at that time, to make a determination or recommendation or a guideline.
As things evolve and change and you get more information, it is important that you use the scientific process to gain that information and perhaps change the way you think of things, change your guidelines and change your recommendation, Fauci added.
Republicans on the panel repeatedly asked Fauci about how the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China received grant funding from the U.S. government, as well as whether it, or another lab, could have created COVID-19. That theory is counter to another that the virus emerged from a spillover event at an outdoor food market.
Fauci testified that it was impossible the viruses being studied at the Wuhan Institute under an NIH subgrant could have led to COVID-19, but didnt rule out it coming from elsewhere.
I cannot account, nor can anyone account, for other things that might be going on in China, which is the reason why I have always said and will say now, I keep an open mind as to what the origin is, Fauci said. But the one thing I know for sure, is that the viruses that were funded by the NIH, phylogenetically could not be the precursor of SARS-CoV-2.
Fauci added that the $120,000 grant that was sent to another organization before being sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was a small piece of the budget.
If they were going to do something on the side, they have plenty of other money to do it. They wouldnt necessarily have to use a $120,000 NIH grant to do it, Fauci said.
The NIH subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he testified, funded research on the surveillance of and the possibility of emerging infections.
I would not characterize it as dangerous gain-of-function research, Fauci said. Ive already testified to that effect, a couple of times.
Politicians have used multiple, often shifting, definitions for gain-of-function research during the last few years. The American Society for Microbiology writes in a two-page explainer that it is used in research to alter the function of an organism in such a way that it is able to do more than it used to do.
Actions taken during the first several months of the pandemic were essential to saving lives, Fauci testified. Those steps included encouraging people to socially distance, to wear masks and to obtain the vaccine once it was approved.
Fauci said that had public health officials just let the virus work its way through the country without any precautions or safety measures, there very likely would have been another million people (who) would have died.
Information about the COVID-19 vaccine, he said, was communicated as it came in, including particulars about whether it would stop the spread of the virus entirely or whether it predominantly worked by limiting severe illness and hospitalizations.
The issue is particularly complicated, Fauci said, because at the very beginning of the vaccine rollout, data showed the shot did prevent infection and subsequently, obviously, transmission.
However, its important to point out, something that we did not know early on that became evident as the months went by, is that the durability of protection against infection, and hence transmission was relatively limited whereas the duration of protection against severe disease, hospitalization and deaths was more prolonged, Fauci testified.
We did not know that in the beginning, he added. In the beginning it was felt that, in fact, it did prevent infection and thus transmission. But that was proven, as time went by, to not be a durable effect.
Republican members on the subcommittee, as well as those sitting in from other committees, repeatedly asked Fauci about allegations that he avoided using his government email address to circumvent requests for those communications under the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA.
Fauci vehemently denied the accusations, saying he never conducted official business using his personal email.
Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell asked Fauci during the hearing about threats he and his family have faced during the last few years, especially as misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19 have spread.
There have been credible death threats, leading to the arrests of two individuals. And credible death threats means someone who clearly was on their way to kill me, Fauci testified.
Fauci and his wife and three daughters have received harassing emails, text messages and letters. Fauci said people targeting his family for his public health work makes him feel terrible.
Its required my having protective services, essentially all the time, Fauci testified.
One of the most critical Republicans on the panel, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, alleged that Fauci should be in jail, though she didnt present any evidence of actual crimes, nor has any police department or law enforcement agency charged him with a crime.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, of which the subcommittee is a part, said repeated GOP-led investigations into Faucis conduct show he is an honorable public servant, who has devoted his entire career to the public health in the public interest. And he is not a comic book super villain.
Raskin later apologized to Fauci for several GOP lawmakers treating him like a convicted felon, before seemingly referencing that former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is a convicted felon.
Actually, you probably wish they were treating you like a convicted felon. They treat convicted felons with love and admiration, Raskin said. Some of them blindly worship convicted felons.
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The contract is currently for 640,000 doses, with the possibility to buyup to 40 million dosesover four years.
HERA, which has been in talks with Seqirus for months, approached the company last year to ask it to update its zoonotic flu vaccine to the dominant circulating avian flu strain. But to do so, Seqirus asked for a minimum guarantee of sale, to make the transaction profitable something HERA could guarantee through the joint procurement.
Seqiruss adapted zoonotic influenza vaccine was given the backing of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in April.
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Dr. Deborah Birx, a former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under Donald Trump, told CNN on Tuesday that there was an effort to squash scientists suggesting the COVID-19 virus started in a lab in Wuhan, China.
"I think early on, people did take very definitive sides, and it did divide along party lines, and we're still suffering from that four years later," Birx told CNN's Kasie Hunt, who asked if there was any substance to the argument that the lab leak theory was suppressed.
"I do think it happened. If you look at what people said about Bob Redfield and how they disparaged him as a scientist because he wanted to bring forward the lab leak potential," the former top medical official said.
Redfield, a former director of the CDC, suggested early on that the COVID-19 pandemic started in a lab, which was widely dismissed by the media and other prominent health officials.
FAUCI DENIES SEEKING TO OPPRESS COVID-19 LAB LEAK ORIGIN THEORY
Dr. Deborah Birx suggests the lab leak theory was suppressed early on during an interview on CNN on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (Screenshot/CNN)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, denied during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday that he suppressed the theory.
Birx told Hunt on Tuesday, "And I think the reason he felt he [Redfield] needed to bring it forward to push, was to push against this, it had to be this way. Because we didnt know, and we knew we would never know. I mean, we knew as SARS that China was not transparent. We knew with the second SARS, China was not transparent, so we were not going to get an answer, but that shouldnt have held us back 4.5 years later from both ensuring that we protect against lab leaks and we protect that public."
She added that lab leaks "definitely" happen and noted, "people got infected with HIV in the lab."
"And so we have to put different rules and regulations and guidelines in place to protect the public. We can do that. Weve done that before," Birx said.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies to a House Committee on Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies hearing, about the budget request for the National Institutes of Health, Wednesday, May 11, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Birx also discussed the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing on Monday.
"The one thing good coming out of the hearing, I believe, and I think Dr. Fauci made this point over and over again, were at a place where we can definitively say we do not know if it was lab or zoonotic, from animals. We do a lot of zoonotic work. Its our opportunity to really decide as a global community how were going to control laboratory experiments in a way that protects the public," she said.
Fauci, during the hearing on Monday, also defended vaccine mandates for students, employees and the military.
"Vaccines save lives. It is very, very clear that vaccines have saved hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions worldwide," he said.
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"In the beginning, it clearly prevented infection in a certain percentage of people but the durability of its ability to prevent infection was not long. It was measured in months," he added.
Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Imagine if a novel virus killed 20 million people and half of Americas politicians actively downplayed questions about where it came from.
Yet thats what some members of Congress did Monday.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) suggested that bringing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, before the House subcommittee investigating the origins of COVID-19 was a charade.
The evidence today points to COVID-19 having originated from an animal market, declared Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.).
They and others did not bother to ask how the National Institutes of Health evaded an Obama-era moratorium on gain-of-function research a ban enacted out of concern that a lab leak could cause a pandemic.
Nor did anyone ask Fauci about a 2018 experiment his division conducted, in which NIAID researchers tried to infect bats with Wuhan coronaviruses at the NIHs Rocky Mountain Laboratories.
Why were US taxpayers funding research on Wuhan coronaviruses in Montana?
We still dont know.
Ironically, some of the greatest clues to the origins of COVID-19 have emerged from US government documents.
The Wuhan labs 2018 DEFUSE grant was a cookbook for genetically engineering COVID-19.
Yet federal officials refused to make the details public until a brave whistleblower did so.
There is overwhelming circumstantial evidence of the US governments cozy relationship with the Wuhan lab through EcoHealth Alliance.
But this information emerged via whistleblowers and FOIA requests, not because Fauci and other federal employees were forthcoming.
During the recent congressional testimony of Dr. David Morens, Faucis right-hand man, we learned that NIAID scientists worked hard to conceal communications between Fauci and external virologists.
At one point, emails revealed, Morens boasted that he learned how to delete messages after a FOIA request had been filed to make them public. So were safe, he concluded.
Morning Report and Evening Update: Your source for today's top stories
Safe from what?
One FOIA-revealed document described secret meetings among top US virologists who, on Feb. 1, 2020, told Fauci they believed COVID-19 came from a lab.
Days later, those same virologists published a scientific study in Nature, a major science journal, concluding definitively that the pathogen was not lab-generated.
When questioned before the House in January, Fauci claimed he did not recall key details more than 100 times.
Yet on Monday, several members of the House subcommittee had no questions for him about dangerous gain-of-function research even though its still going on.
Earlier this year, a Chinese lab published a new virus manipulation experiment, and two years ago Boston University researchers alarmed government officials when they reported they had made a COVID virus strain more lethal.
How can we seriously prepare for the next pandemic without properly investigating how the last one started and putting a halt to the type of experiments that clearly produced COVID-19?
This should be the least partisan issue in the country.
But Fauci has emerged as a partisan figure aligned with the Democratic Party.
At Mondays hearing, when Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) mocked the Great Barrington Declaration, an alternative to the pandemic lockdown regime, Dr. Fauci chimed in, asserting it was a flawed strategy.
But neither mentioned the clear data that Sweden, which used the Great Barrington approach, had far fewer deaths per capita than the United States suffered a searing indictment of our COVID-19 policy.
Fauci apologists are conveniently retreating to the position that we will simply never know the origin of COVID-19.
We should therefore stop investigating the cozy relationship between the US government and the Wuhan lab, they say.
But the entire COVID-19 pandemic was most likely avoidable.
To actually prevent a future pandemic, a modicum of humility from Fauci and his fellow advocates for risky gain-of-function research is the necessary first step.
Marty Makary MD, MPH is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and author of the forthcoming book Blind Spots: When medicine gets it wrong and what it means for our health.
