An advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted on Tuesday to recommend the newly approved and authorized COVID-19 vaccines to those ages 6 months and older.
The meeting comes after the Food and Drug Administration granted commercial approval on Monday for the latest vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Novavax based upon its June recommendation of a monovalent vaccine targeting the omicron XBB.1.5 strain of the virus.
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The 13-1 vote on Tuesday’s CDC panel concluded that although older people are those most at risk of contracting severe illness from COVID-19, the benefits of vaccination exceed the risks.
Per FDA guidance, individuals over the age of 5 are eligible for a single dose of the updated mRNA COVID-19 vaccine as long as it has been at least two months since their most recent COVID-19 vaccine. Children between 6 months and 4 years old who have already been vaccinated are eligible for one or two new doses of the vaccine. Unvaccinated children of the same age are eligible for three doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine or two doses of Moderna’s vaccine.
The singular dissenting vote on the panel argued that, although he encouraged the panel’s approval and recommendations, he would have liked to see more data on their efficacy against other non-XBB variants of the virus, such as the highly-mutated BA.2.86.
Experts on the panel said during the meeting that, although the World Health Organization and CDC are closely monitoring BA.2.86 and EG.5 — nicknamed Eris after the Greek goddess of destruction and chaos — the XBB variants are still the dominant forms of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States.
The FDA’s approval statement on Monday said that new monovalent vaccines will likely be “a good match for protecting against the currently circulating COVID-19 variants” and prevent severe illness and hospitalization.
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All three vaccine manufacturers announced anticipated prices of their vaccines during the CDC panel. The mRNA vaccines will cost between $120 and $130 for each single-injection dose, whereas the Novavax product that does not use mRNA technology will cost slightly over $72 per dose.
Although the Biden administration announced in July that it would be transitioning the vaccine rollout to the commercial market, the CDC will be administering a program to provide vaccines to those for whom it will not be covered by insurance.
