Top in ID: ACIP guidance on boosters in adolescents, effects of omicron on long COVID
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13-1 to recommend that children aged 12 to 17 years receive a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at least 5 months after their primary series.
The vote came 2 days after the FDA amended an emergency use authorization for the vaccine to add a booster dose for children aged 12 to 15 years. It was the top story in infectious disease last week.
Another top story was about the potential effects of the omicron variant on long COVID. Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, FASN, a physician at the VA St. Louis Health Care System who studies long COVID, said there have been reports that the omicron variant is associated with less severe infections, which “may bode well for long COVID.”
Read these and more top stories in infectious disease below:
ACIP recommends Pfizer booster for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years
The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee voted to recommend that adolescents aged 12 to 17 years receive a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Read more.
Q&A: How will omicron affect long COVID?
The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 now accounts for 95% of COVID-19 cases in the United States, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, said during a White House briefing on Wednesday. Read more.
FDA also shortens Moderna booster interval to 5 months amid omicron surge
The FDA amended an emergency use authorization for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to shorten the suggested time between a primary two-dose series and a booster shot from 6 to 5 months. Read more.
Q&A: Unpatented COVID-19 vaccine could ‘finally vaccinate the world’
An unpatented COVID-19 vaccine recently authorized in India and going into production in other countries could soon vaccinate more people globally than all the doses donated by the U.S. and other G7 countries, two of its developers said. Read more.
CDC tweaks guidance on ending isolation for anyone who ‘wants to test’
The CDC tweaked its guidance for people isolating with COVID-19, adding a recommendation for anyone who “wants to test” but stopping short of telling people that they should test. Read more.