Covid Vaccine Race

The CDC director endorsed the vote, and vaccines could be available to this young pediatric population by later this week.

This past week has been extremely busy in infectious disease with a lot of vaccine news that could impact young children. In addition, GSK reported on its phase 3 study on its RSV vaccine for seniors.

Following VRBPAC recommendations earlier this week, both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were FDA-authorized for children as young as 6 months.

The FDA VRBPAC votes to recommend mRNA vaccines in youngest children; WHO moves to rename monkeypox; Anthony Fauci is diagnosed with COVID-19; and Pfizer stops recruiting for a Paxlovid trial.

Today, the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) unanimously voted to recommend both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old.

The committee voted twice splitting the questions into younger children (6-11 years) and adolescent (12-17 years) cohorts due to different vaccine dosing amounts.

Sanofi and GSK’s booster vaccine candidate is modeled on the Beta COVID-19 variant, and increases Omicron-neutralizing antibody titers 40-fold.

Rather than developing vaccines for each new variant, some officials are pushing to follow the flu vaccine model, with annual vaccination.

Immunization against COVID-19 benefits pregnant women as well as their offspring.

Moderna’s bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster, mRNA-1273.214, generated nearly twice the protective antibodies against Omicron.

The vote was 21-0 in favor of an emergency use authorization (EUA), with one voter abstaining.

The advisory group is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the vaccine’s presenting data and a potential authorization.

New vaccine for COVID-19 employing receptor-binding domain-dimer-based platform achieves 87.6% efficacy against severe to critical illness.

The White House coronavirus response coordinator said vaccines for children under 5 could potentially begin on June 21.

Medical professionals discuss how they affect immunity as well as the necessity of these additional vaccinations.

A new study from the CDC underscores the importance of staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, showing a rapid drop in vaccine effectiveness among children during the Omicron wave that increased with booster doses.

Companies say the 3 doses of their vaccine meet all immunobridging criteria required for the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).

The CDC’s COVID-19 booster dose recommendation for children 5 and older comes a few days after the FDA’s authorization

Public health and school officials need to consider strategies now.

A new study in the United Kingdom provided evidence in support of a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines, showing a strong boost in immunity.

A third, “booster,” dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is now FDA-approved for children 5-11 years old.

As we recently surpassed the 2-year mark of the pandemic, the May issue reflects on lessons learned thus far.

The company is utilizing this platform to address new COVID-19 variants, combination vaccines, and potentially prevent HIV.

Despite a significantly slower than expected COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Novavax reports early 2022 as its first profitable quarter.

The federal agency revised the vaccine’s Emergency Use Authorization after an analysis of the risk for thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS).

Medicago’s plant-based vaccine, Covifenz, was 69.5% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 infection and 78.8% effective against moderate-to-severe disease.

The number of Americans who opt for an additional booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine may be limited.

Researchers looked at the serial use of homologous and heterologous boosters in open-label clinical trials across 10 US sites.

Correlating immune response to COVID-19 vaccination in persons with HIV to their CD4 T-cell count could inform optimal vaccine strategy.

If authorized, this would be the first vaccine applicable to the youngest pediatric group.