The Current COVID-19 Booster-Shot Strategy is Not Sustainable, Says FDA's Expert Panel
a second booster dose of both Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s vaccines for people over age 50 and those with compromised immune systems.
That means the current booster strategy isn’t sustainable, so the committee discussed ways to establish a more structured plan for studying vaccine effectiveness and making decisions about whether, and when to change the shots or boosters. In addition, while most flu vaccines are built the same way, by growing the desired influenza strains in chicken eggs and then generating specific flu proteins to include in the shots, there’s a range of approaches used in COVID-19 vaccines, with some relying on mRNA, some on recombinant viral proteins, and still others on viral vectors to deliver viral messages to the immune system.
But, for example, to have enough new shots ready for a wave of cases in the fall, they would have to be tested and manufactured by May or June. So the committee members discussed the possibility of using the sort of lab-based studies that have driven the authorizations and approvals to date, in which scientists test blood from people vaccinated and measure how well the antibodies the shots produced can neutralize the virus.