The Biden administration plans to offer updated versions of coronavirus boosters targeting highly transmissible omicron subvariants shortly after Labor Day, according to several media reports.
The new shots would be offered to all Americans 12 and older, and officials hope they will quell an expected winter surge in COVID-19 cases, The New York Times reported.
Dr. Peter Marks, the top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration, told the Times that, although the new formulations haven’t been tested in humans, he was “extremely confident” in data showing they are safe and effective. Marks added the FDA was close to authorizing the new vaccine boosters, saying they would target the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 that account for almost all of the new cases of COVID-19 in the United States.
