The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it has greenlighted updated COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for the 2024 fall season.
The decision clears the way for distribution to begin for the latest version of the shots earlier this year than last year.
Moderna and Pfizer’s shots were revised this year to target the KP.2 variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as part of a now-annual process undertaken by the FDA and health authorities around the world to update the vaccines to protect against newer strains of the virus.
“Given waning immunity of the population from previous exposure to the virus and from prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants,” said Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Similar to previous seasons, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that all Americans ages 6 months and older get a shot of the “updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine” to protect against another expected surge of the virus this fall and winter.
In a presentation to the American Medical Association earlier this month, CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen recommended starting to administer COVID-19 shots this year as soon they are available.
“Then the administration should continue through September, October, November, those are the months you really want to be paying attention to,” she said.
Both Moderna and Pfizer say they expect the first shots from their vaccines to become available in the coming days around the country. Another updated vaccine from Novavax is also expected to get the FDA’s authorization this year.
