Not enough data to support multiple annual COVID boosters, US CDC advisers say. By Reuters

By Aditya Samal

(Reuters) – There is insufficient evidence to recommend more than one COVID-19 booster shot a year for older people and those with weakened immune systems, an advisory group of experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. Prevention of Diseases (CDC) of the USA.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) COVID-19 task force supported an annual booster campaign, likely in the fall, especially for populations considered high-risk, the agency said. Dr. Sara Oliver, a CDC official who leads the group. during a meeting of external advisors to the agency.

The agency currently recommends that older and immunocompromised people receive COVID booster shots more frequently, as vaccine effectiveness generally declines faster for those populations compared to younger people with robust immune systems.

In spring 2022, the CDC recommended that people who are immunocompromised and older than 50 years receive an additional injection if they had received their first booster at least four months earlier.

CDC advisers did not vote on new recommendations for how COVID-19 vaccines should be administered on Friday.

But ACIP advised showing flexibility in recommendations for those with compromised or weakened immune systems to allow for more frequent dosing for those most vulnerable to severe COVID.

Both the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration are working on how to best update COVID vaccines to target variants that circulate annually, similar to flu vaccination campaigns.

About 53.3 million people in the United States, about 16% of the US population, have received a booster vaccine against COVID-19 since updated versions of the vaccines were licensed in September.

That compares with 230 million people, about 70% of the population, who received an initial two-dose series of the COVID vaccines.