REGIONAL- In a move increasingly clamored for by vulnerable seniors, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved people 65 and older to receive an additional COVID booster of either the Pfizer or Moderna bivalent vaccines first approved last September.
The FDA also approved a second dose for those individuals with compromised immune systems.
Under the new guidelines, which still have to be approved by the Centers for Disease Control, something that has been automatic for prior FDA vaccine decisions, those 65 and older who have received a single dose of bivalent vaccine may receive a second dose at least four months after their first one. Immunocompromised individuals can get their second booster shot two months after their first.
The FDA also opened the door for local healthcare providers to administer additional boosters for the immunocompromised at their discretion.
The FDA also effectively retired the original single-strain COVID vaccines by establishing a single-shot regimen of bivalent vaccines for individuals who have not yet been vaccinated.
The bivalent vaccine has been most popular with the 65-and-over age group in Minnesota, with 63 percent of individuals electing to receive it. Uptake overall has been largely disappointing to health officials, with only 25 percent of Minnesotans receiving a bivalent booster dose. Lack of enthusiasm for the booster in the general public has been attributed to President Joe Biden’s proclamation last September that the COVID pandemic was over at the same time the booster was being released and a leveling of COVID infections with no accompanying large waves as in prior years. Skepticism about the boosters in general, as well as the belief that most Americans have been exposed to COVID and have some form of immunity as a result, has further diminished interest in boosters.
But the pandemic was not over in September despite the president’s comments, and the COVID virus has morphed through several new variants, each more infectious than its predecessor. And seniors have been bearing the brunt of it all, accounting for greater percentages of serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths than any other group. Reports of concerned seniors asking their healthcare provides for a second booster dose have been circulating the past few months as health officials warned of the approach of what was termed the most infections variant to date, XBB.1.5, which is capable of evading immune responses and constitutes over 90 percent of the COVID viral load circulating in the state.
Situation update
According to data compiled by MPR News for its weekly COVID update, most of the primary indicators of COVID activity in the state continued to decline last week. Reported cases and hospitalizations declined, while an average of five Minnesotans dying per day of COVID-related illness remained at the same level it’s been for several months.
Measure of COVID strains in wastewater also fell or remained steady throughout the state, with northeast Minnesota seeing a one-week drop of 45 percent.
All Minnesota counties received a community level rating of low from the CDC last week. Sixty cases were reported in St. Louis County.
Meanwhile, President Biden signed a bill last week officially ending the COVID emergency originally declared by President Donald Trump. A different federal emergency declaration made pursuant to a public health law is set to expire on May 11.