Pharmacist Aaron Sun prepares Pfizer’s new Covid vaccine Comirnaty at CVS Pharmacy in Eagle Rock, California.
Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
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Hello! It's almost that time again.
There will likely be a new round of Covid vaccinations in the coming months. Here's what we know so far about the latest vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday advised vaccine makers to develop monovalent Covid vaccines against a highly contagious strain of the virus called JN.1, which are to be used in the United States starting this fall.
The omicron variant, JN.1, first emerged in the U.S. last summer and became the dominant strain in circulation in January. However, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that strain was responsible for only about 3% of all new cases in the U.S. through Saturday.
Several offshoots of JN.1.11.1, a direct descendant of JN.1, have since taken over the role of the primary strains circulating in the United States. These include KP.3, KP.2, and KP.1.1, also known as FLiRT variants.
CDC data shows that as of June 8, KP.3 accounted for a quarter of all new cases in the U.S., while KP.2 accounted for 22.5% of cases.
Federal health officials have long warned Americans to expect annual updates to Covid shots as the virus spawns new strains that can evade people's immunity from previous vaccinations or infections – protection that also wanes over time. It's similar to the U.S., where new flu vaccines are rolled out every year.
Here's what the three Covid vaccine makers have said so far.
- Pfizer has applied to the FDA for approval of an updated mRNA vaccine against Covid against JN.1, with the goal of making the vaccine available in the fall, subject to a CDC recommendation, a spokesman said.
- Modern has applied for FDA approval for its own updated mRNA vaccine against JN.1, according to a press release. The company said production is underway and doses of the new vaccine will be ready to ship in the U.S. as early as August.
- Novavax The company expects to be ready to ship a protein-based Covid vaccine against JN.1 in the U.S. in September, subject to FDA and CDC approval, the company said in a press release.
The two companies each presented data last week showing that a JN.1 Covid vaccine should produce higher levels of protective antibodies against circulating variants of the virus compared to vaccines currently authorized on the market that target another omicron variant called XBB.1.5, a strain that is no longer in circulation.
Once the FDA approves each vaccine, an advisory panel must recommend the shots to the CDC and the agency itself before they can be distributed to Americans. The CDC's advisory panel is scheduled to meet later this month to vote on who should receive the new round of vaccines in the fall.
The bigger question is: How many people will actually roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated over the course of this year?
According to CDC data, as of early May, only about 22.5% of U.S. adults had received the latest round of vaccinations, which were introduced last fall.
Many Americans who had received previous Covid vaccinations said they had not gotten the final booster shot because they were not as worried about the virus, according to a November survey by the health research organization KFF. Others said they had been too busy to get vaccinated, the survey found.
The number of Covid cases in the U.S. has fallen sharply since its peak early in the pandemic, but appears to be rising again. The U.S. weekly test positivity rate was 4.5% on June 1, compared to 4.1% the week before and 3.4% the week before that, according to CDC data.
We will continue to monitor the new round of Covid vaccines as we approach fall.
Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.
Latest technology in healthcare
White House partners with Microsoft and Google on cybersecurity for rural hospitals
An American flag flies in front of OSF Saint Paul Medical Center in Mendota, Illinois, on April 14, 2020.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg |
The White House announced on Monday Microsoft And Google have agreed to provide free and low-cost cybersecurity resources to rural hospitals across the U.S. as the healthcare sector works to fend off a growing number of attackers.
According to a press release, cyberattacks on the healthcare system increased by 128% from 2022 to 2023, and the number of major breaches in the sector reached a record high last year. The attacks show no signs of stopping, as major healthcare systems and companies have been plagued by security breaches in recent months.
For example, in February, Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, was the victim of a major cyberattack that prevented thousands of doctors from filling prescriptions, requesting benefits or being paid for their services. The White House called the attack “one of the most significant cyberattacks in healthcare to date.”
Maintaining cybersecurity infrastructure is complex and expensive, and breaches often require “personnel-intensive manual workarounds” that can be particularly burdensome for small rural hospitals, the White House said. That's why the Biden administration has called on technology companies like Microsoft and Google to offer additional support.
Microsoft announced in a press release that it will offer rural emergency and critical access hospitals up to 75% off its security products tailored to smaller organizations. The company said it will offer some larger rural hospitals its “most advanced” security suite for free for a year, and participating rural hospitals can also get free security updates for Windows 10.
Rural hospitals can access free cybersecurity assessments and training through Microsoft and its partners to identify risks and gaps in systems, the company said.
Google said it will offer free “endpoint security consulting” to rural hospitals and nonprofit organizations, meaning the company will help organizations make their devices, such as laptops and desktops, harder to attack.
Taylor Lehmann, head of the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer at Google Cloud, said Google is also helping organizations set up platforms like Google Workspace and systems like Chrome and ChromeOS that have security built in. The company is offering funding to help organizations make the transition, Lehmann added.
“The belief that this problem will simply go away or that the bad guys simply have bigger goals [is] not right,” he said in an interview with CNBC. “Hope is not a strategy, especially when the market for attackers is so indiscriminate.”
Lehmann said Google is also putting together a pilot program with some rural hospitals to develop a free or low-cost package of tools that it could offer to similar organizations on a larger scale in the future.
“It's very encouraging to see this activity. I think it's been a long time coming, and I think there's more to do here,” he said. “It's going in the right direction, I would say, in terms of bringing attention to some of these really critical issues that we're seeing.”
You can read the full White House press release here.
Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Ashley at ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.
