Health officials in the US have suggested that covid shots are to be made annual much like flu shots.
In a White House press briefing, chief COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said that covid booster shots are being made available for “all Americans 12 and above”.
The US is preparing to roll out new shots which Pfizer and BioNTech have developed specifically to manage the omicron variant.
“This makes us, the US, the first nation with new vaccines that match the omicron variant that is currently dominant” he said.
He later added, “We are moving to a point where a single annual COVID shot should provide a high degree of protection against serious illness all year”.
The panel said that annual shots were, in the absence of the possible “curveball” of a new variant appearing, the best way to avoid “serious illness” for the period of one year.
Chief Health Advisor Anthony Fauci said “It is becoming increasingly clear that looking forward with the covid 19 pandemic in the absence of a dramatically different variant, we likely are moving towards a path in the vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine with annual updated covid 19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains”.
Jha added that it was the administration’s goal for the autumn to make covid vaccines,“Free, widely available, easily accessible”.