With flu season underway and new, developing COVID-19 strains, health professionals continue to stress the importance of receiving an updated vaccine. On Oct. 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for people 65 years and older and for people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.
The recommendation, made by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, acknowledges the increased risk of severe disease from COVID-19 in older adults and those who are immunocompromised, along with the currently available data on vaccine effectiveness and year-round circulation of COVID-19, a news release stated.
“This vote allows people to make the best decisions possible to keep themselves and their loved ones safe from COVID-19,” said CDC Director, Mandy Cohen in a statement. “CDC will continue to educate the public on how and when to get their updated vaccinations so they can risk less severe illness and do more of what they love.”
There are three types of vaccines available in the United States — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax. According to the CDC, there is no preference for one vaccine over the other.
Wondering how the three vaccines differ? Yale Medicine has published a report comparing the three vaccines. Here’s what they found.
More:When will COVID-19 vaccines be available for fall-winter season? What to know
Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax: How do the three vaccines compare?
Pfizer-BioNTech: The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was the first COVID vaccine to receive FDA Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration back in December 2020. It was later granted full FDA approval in August 2021 for people ages 16 and older.
Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccine has been updated over time to target currently circulating variants, most recently in August, and is recommended for everyone six months and older. Children ages six months to four years may get multiple doses while children five and older may get one dose of the 2024-2025 updated vaccine.
People 65 years and older, and those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, may receive a second dose six months after their first dose, read the report.
Possible side effects of the Pfizer vaccine include pain, redness, or swelling where the shot was administered. Patients may also experience tiredness, headaches, muscle pains, chills, fever, or nausea. If side effects occur they typically wear off in a few days. Few side effects are serious, although rare, reported Yale.
The updated vaccines were approved based on preclinical studies of their efficacy against circulating strains. People may still become infected even after receiving a vaccine, however, the goal of the vaccines now is to prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death. According to Yale, research has suggested that people who are infected after vaccination are less likely to report “long COVID” — signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after acute COVID infection — compared to those who were not vaccinated.
Moderna: Moderna was granted FDA Emergency Use Authorization in December 2020, just a week after Pfizer. The FDA later granted the Moderna vaccine full approval for people 18 and older in January 2022.
People ages 6 months and older are eligible to receive the Moderna vaccine, with specific recommendations for certain groups. Children ages six months to four years need multiple doses including at least one dose of the 2024-2025 updated vaccine. People ages five and older years may get one dose of the 2024-2025 updated vaccine.
People 65 years and older, and those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, may receive a second dose six months after their first dose. People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may decide to receive additional doses in accordance with their healthcare provider, reported Yale.
For more information about dose recommendation, visit the CDC website.
The side effects from Moderna’s vaccine are similar to Pfizer’s — pain, redness, swelling where the shot was administered, and/or tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever, or nausea throughout the rest of the body.
Novavax: The Novavax was the fourth COVID vaccine to be administered in the U.S., after Johnson & Johnson, which is no longer available. The Novavax vaccine is the only non-mRNA updated COVID vaccine that has been available in the U.S. The vaccine had a 90% efficacy in its clinical trial, performing almost as well as the mRNA vaccines in their early trials.
The FDA authorized an updated COVID vaccine from Novavax at the end of August for people ages 12 and older, reported Yale.
People 12 and older are eligible to receive the Novavax vaccine. People 65 and older, and those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, may receive a second dose six months after their first dose. People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may receive additional doses in consultation with their healthcare provider.
Novavax’s side effects are similar to those of Moderna and Pfizer. In rare cases, myocarditis and pericarditis was reported in clinical trial participants as well as severe allergic reactions.
While Novavax’s 2024-2025 updated vaccine targets the JN.1 variant, and not KP.2 like Pfizer and Moderna, Novavax has reported that non-clinical data has demonstrated broad cross-neutralizing antibodies against multiple variant strains such as JN.1, KP.2 and KP.3.
What is the circulating COVID-19 strain in Tennessee? Updated data for Davidson County
Across the United States, KP.3.1.1 of the Omicron family, is the leading variant, accounting for 57% of cases throughout the two-week period ending on Oct. 26. The CDC’s data tracker tool did not provide nowcast estimates for the Southeast region, due to estimates only being available for regions having over 300 sequences.
According to the Tennessee Health Department, Davidson County has averaged 29 new COVID-19 cases reported per day for the seven-day period ending on Oct. 19, 2024.
Throughout that same time period, the county had an average daily case rate of 4 cases per 100,000 residents per day. The week prior, Davidson County averaged 15 new cases per day.
Diana Leyva covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com or follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @_leyvadiana
