FDAs Annual COVID-19 Booster Shot Proposal Sparks Questions, Concerns

The Food and Drug Administration wants to shift to a simplified COVID-19 booster plan, but responses to the idea are proving that the issue is a complicated one.

In documents published this week, the FDA proposed a booster shot strategy similar to the flu vaccine schedule, with an updated shot matched to circulating strains offered annually in the fall for most Americans. Its committee of outside vaccine experts is set to discuss the topic during a meeting on Thursday.

But some experts are asking whether available data supports such a plan.

The big question is: How often do we need repeat vaccination? And I don't think we have a definitive answer, Joachim Hombach of the World Health Organization said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

Hombach said that it is conceivable that the booster time frame could be annual but raised concern that COVID-19 has has yet to become seasonal, with surges happening in the summer, fall and winter.

We also have to say that for the time being COVID hasn't really come down to the usual seasonality that we see for other respiratory viruses, Hombach said. The virus is still very unstable. So this is a bit of an anticipation that we end up in a seasonal pattern as we have, for instance, for influenza.