US regulators have approved a third updated COVID-19 vaccine for this fall, shots made by Novavax Inc.
Already, Pfizer and Moderna are sending images modified to better match newer strains of the ever-changing coronavirus. These doses can be used in adults and children as young as 6 months.
Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration gave the OK to the updated Novavax formula, too — and those shots are open to anyone 12 and older.
While most Americans have some degree of immunity from previous infections or vaccinations or both, that protection is waning. Despite this summer wavewinter waves of covid-19 tend to be worse and health officials are urging americans to get one of the vaccine options this fall.
Novavax makes a protein-based vaccine mixed with an immune booster, a different technology than Pfizer and Moderna’s so-called mRNA vaccines.
This year there is another small difference in the wording. The Pfizer and Moderna prescriptions are tailored to a virus subtype called KP.2. The Novavax formula targets its parent strain, called JN.1. The FDA considers both to be closely related enough to currently circulating strains to offer cross-protection.
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