FDA, CDC Plan Swift Reviews Of Vaccines Revamped For Omicron
Meanwhile, the emergence of omicron has driven vaccination and booster rates up. But some scientists worry that more boosters now could make future vaccines less effective.
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Plans To Fast-Track Revamped Covid-19 Vaccines
The Biden administration is preparing to fast-track authorization of revamped Covid-19 vaccines to combat Omicron as a study from South Africa suggests the fast-spreading variant might cause less severe illness than its predecessors. Federal regulators on Sunday said cases have been identified in 16 states and that the Food and Drug Administration is already in conversations about streamlining authorization for revamped vaccines. Agency officials have met with vaccine makers and are working to set guidelines for the type of data that will be needed to swiftly evaluate the safety and efficacy of changes to current vaccines. (Douglas and Armour, 12/5)
NBC News:
Is The Best Strategy Against Omicron To Boost With The Original Vaccine?
Federal health officials are urging all vaccinated adults to get their Covid booster shot amid growing alarm over the omicron variant, a heavily mutated coronavirus strain that’s already been detected in a handful of states across the U.S. But some vaccine experts worry that numerous booster doses of existing vaccines could make future vaccines, if needed, less effective. The variant’s mutations suggest it may be able to dodge some of the immunity provided by vaccination or natural infection. While federal health officials and drugmakers await highly anticipated lab results to see how much of a threat omicron poses to vaccines, for now, the existing boosters are the best defense against the new strain and the highly transmissible delta variant, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, epidemiologists and immunologists say. (Lovelace Jr., 12/5)
The Washington Post:
U.S. Coronavirus Vaccine Demand Increases Amid Omicron Variant Concerns
Demand for coronavirus vaccines has spiked in the United States in recent weeks, as more Americans are eligible for booster shots and concerns grow over the omicron variant. Health-care providers administered 2.18 million doses of coronavirus vaccines on Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the “highest single-day total since May,” the White House said. According to the latest CDC report, over the week ending on Thursday, the average number of daily administered vaccine doses reported to the agency was 22 percent higher than the previous week. (Timsit, 12/5)
More on omicron's effect on current covid vaccines —
Bloomberg:
Moderna’s Hoge Sees Risk Vaccines Will Struggle With Omicron
Moderna Inc. President Stephen Hoge said there’s a “real risk” that existing Covid-19 vaccines will be less effective against omicron, while U.S. medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the variant’s severity may be limited. U.S. health officials said Sunday it’s still unclear how transmissible the latest Covid-19 variant is, how well existing vaccines work and whether it will lead to more severe illnesses. Hoge stopped short of comments by Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel that spooked markets last week, saying it’s too early to tell by how much omicron will degrade vaccines. (Czuczka and Sink, 12/5)
Bloomberg:
Omicron Mutations Signal Vaccine Evasion, But Similar Symptoms
As fears of another global surge of Covid-19 cases send jitters through global markets, spur a new round of travel bans and cause Americans to rethink their holiday plans, scientists studying the omicron variant are getting the first hints of what’s in store for the months to come. The new variant’s mutations suggest that it is likely to evade the protections of vaccines to at least some extent, but that it is unlikely to cause more severe illness than previous versions of the coronavirus. (Brown, 12/4)
CNBC:
Andy Slavitt On Omicron Covid Variant, Vaccines
The new omicron Covid variant poses a greater risk for the unvaccinated and there’s reason to believe that current vaccines are going to be “quite effective,” a former White House advisor said Monday. “What we know for sure is that it is a dangerous variant for people who have not been vaccinated,” Andy Slavitt told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.” “What we have to get to learn is whether or not omicron — how it spreads in an environment where delta is strong,” he said. (Choudhury and Ng, 12/6)
And on contact tracing —
AP:
Contact Tracing Revs Up In Some States As Omicron Reaches US
The arrival of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in the U.S. has health officials in some communities reviving contact tracing operations in an attempt to slow and better understand its spread as scientists study how contagious it is and whether it can thwart vaccines. In New York City, officials quickly reached out to a man who tested positive for the variant and had attended an anime conference at a Manhattan convention center last month along with more than 50,000 people. Five other attendees have also been infected with the coronavirus, though officials don’t yet know whether it was with the omicron variant. (Hollingsworth and Calvan, 12/4)
