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The shots should be available within days, the FDA said in making the announcement Thursday afternoon, Aug. 22.
The new vaccines have been updated with a formula to more closely target currently circulating variants and provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID, including hospitalization and death.
“Vaccination continues to be the cornerstone of COVID-19 prevention,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “These updated vaccines meet the agency’s rigorous, scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality.
"Given waning immunity of the population from previous exposure to the virus and from prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants.”
The updated vaccines include Comirnaty and Spikevax, both of which are approved for individuals 12 years of age and older, and the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, both of which are authorized for emergency use for individuals 6 months through 11 years of age.
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