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Will Americans be able to get a fourth COVID-19 shot? Moderna has petitioned the FDA to approve the fourth dosage of its COVID-19 vaccine for all adults.
However, Pfizer requested clearance for a booster injection just for the elderly.
The US has been preparing to administer extra booster doses to bolster COVID-19 vaccination protection. The COVID-19 vaccinations, either for further booster injections or variant-specific immunizations, the White House has been urging Congress to "urgently" authorize more financing for the federal government.
The Moderna vaccine is recommended in two doses with a booster dosage months later. Today's request was based on "recently publicized data gathered in the US and Israel after Omicron's appearance."
Last Tuesday, Pfizer and BioNTech urged US authorities to approve a second COVID-19 booster dosage for seniors.
An emergency use permit for a second booster of their vaccine, Comirnaty, for adults 65 and older who have previously had a booster of any of the approved COVID-19 vaccinations has been requested.
The fourth injection for elderly individuals and healthcare professionals was offered by Pfizer and BioNTech to the FDA last year, while the omicron variation circulated.
A review of Israeli medical data indicated the risk of confirmed illnesses among those 60 and older who had a second booster was half that of those who had just three doses of the vaccine. The business claims that the second booster group had a four-fold decreased risk of severe COVID-19.
According to Pfizer's FDA application, it supplied a second booster injection to Israeli health care personnel who requested it. According to Pfizer, the fourth injection enhanced neutralizing antibodies by a factor of seven to eight and antibodies specific to the omicron version by a ratio of eight to ten.
While Pfizer's news statement does not specify the study's design or researchers, these results seem to resemble a demographic segment studied in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
Experts say that until Pfizer's data is fully disclosed, any discussion of the universal second booster is premature.
"If we want to survive this pandemic, we must accept that mild disease protection is temporary," Offit added. The first step is admitting that minor diseases like a sniffle and a cough aren't worth fighting against. "As long as major sickness is protected, that's a win," he added.
AP, Bloomberg News, and the LA Times contributed to this story.
