Coronavirus Watch: FDA authorizes reformulated fall booster shot
The FDA paved the way for a new COVID-19 booster Wednesday, giving emergency authorization to a "bivalent" vaccine that targets both the original virus and the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants.
The next step: CDC must sign off on the shots and give recommendations for who should receive them. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna said they are ready to ship the modified boosters in September.
Read more from Karen Weintraub here.
It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news to know:
- The NBA announced unvaccinated players and team staff must submit to weekly COVID-19 testing this season, with certain exceptions for those considered to have been “recently recovered” from the virus.
- New federal data shows that reading and math scores for 9-year-olds have declined significantly across the board since the start of the pandemic.
- The estimated U.S. life expectancy dropped for the second consecutive year in 2021, according to a government report released Wednesday. CDC officials blamed COVID-19 for about half the decline.
See our COVID-19 resource guide here. See total reported cases and deaths here. On vaccinations: About 79% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 67% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
– Cady Stanton, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @cady_stanton