As COVID-19 continues to evolve, the Food and Drug Administration is proposing plans to roll out an updated vaccine every year going forward.
The agency is suggesting experts select a specific strain of the virus each spring and introduce the vaccine to the market by September — similar to annual flu shots.
The FDA will also recommend that most people get just a single yearly jab, though older adults, immunocompromised people, and very young children may still need two doses.
The agency will request input from a panel of vaccine experts on Thursday, but the plan aligns with the recommendations the Biden administration announced last year. In September, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that annual shots could save thousands of lives.
"Modeling projections show that an uptake of updated COVID-19 vaccine doses similar to an annual flu vaccine coverage early this fall could prevent as many as 100,000 hospitalizations, 9,000 deaths, and save billions of dollars in direct medical costs," she said.
However, reception to booster shots has been cool. Though four out of five Americans have received at least one dose, only 16 percent of those eligible have gotten the latest booster, which was released in August.
So far, there have been more than 100 million confirmed cases and greater than one million COVID-19-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Yelling that the future and their lives depend on ending fossil fuels, tens of thousands of protesters on Sunday kicked off a week where leaders will try once again to curb climate change primarily caused by coal, oil and natural gas.
Atlantic storm Lee — which made landfall at near-hurricane strength, bringing destructive winds and torrential rains to New England and Maritime Canada — kept weakening Sunday after officials withdrew warnings and predicted the storm would disappear early this week.
NASA said Thursday that the study of UFOs will require new scientific techniques, including advanced satellites as well as a shift in how unidentified flying objects are perceived.
An effort to destigmatize the use of overdose reversal drugs that started as a pilot in two West Virginia counties has expanded to all thirteen states in Appalachia this year.
States and Native American tribes will have greater authority to block energy projects such as natural gas pipelines that could pollute rivers and streams under a final rule issued Thursday by the Biden administration.
