UK to relaunch new COVID-19 vaccination campaign in coming weeks
“These innovative vaccines will broaden immunity and strengthen our defenses against what remains a life-threatening virus,” UK Health Sec Barclay said.
The UK has announced that it will relaunch its new COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the weeks ahead after authorizing booster shots manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna capable of targeting both SARS-CoV-2 and the highly contagious Omicron variant. In a statement, Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said that it has already approved a safe and effective vaccine manufactured by Pfizer for use among people aged 12 and older. It authorized the Moderna vaccine last month.
All Britons aged 50 and over will be able to access the vaccine and jab after vulnerable groups such as the front-line health care workers are prioritized. The “bivalent” boosters will consist of half of the shot that will attack the original virus and the rest half the newest Omicron variants.
“These innovative vaccines will broaden immunity and strengthen our defenses against what remains a life-threatening virus,” Health Secretary Steve Barclay said in a statement accessed by AP. “If eligible, please come forward for a booster jab as soon as you are contacted by the NHS.”
India, US weigh in on Omicron booster shots
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week also endorsed updated COIVD-19 boosters against the fast-spreading Omicron variant. In its vaccination campaign, the CDC warned of a dramatic winter surge asking the Americans to “roll up their sleeves.”
The decision was made by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky after the agency’s advisers voted in favour of the recommendation. Booster shots “can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection,” she said in a statement.
CDC adviser Dr Matthew Daley of Kaiser Permanente Colorado tweeted in support of the mass vaccination campaign. “I think they’re going to be an effective tool for disease prevention this fall and into the winter,” Dr Matthew Daley iterated in a statement to AP. Dr Sarah Long of Drexel University similarly said that the booster shots are the “same scaffolding, part of the same roof, we’re just putting in some dormers and windows.
” India’s Serum Institute will also launch an Omicron-specific vaccine for COVID-19 after six months, its CEO Adar Poonawalla said at a conference. “The original Novovax vaccine Covovax covers Omicron and there is good data for it. We will try to launch an Omicron-specific vaccine after six months,” he said.
