On January 31st, American Medical Association (AMA) Board Chair Sandra Fryhofer, MD, AMA’s liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and a member of ACIP’s COVID-19 Vaccine Workgroup, recapped the latest news from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) meeting. Topics included “harmonizing” strain composition for both COVID-19 primary vaccines and booster shots.

According to Dr. Fryhofer, the good news is that the bivalent vaccine booster “seems to be doing pretty well. FDA outlined multiple studies from vaccine manufacturers and from independent researchers indicating better neutralizing antibody response against circulating Omicron variants after a bivalent boost versus a monovalent vaccine dose. FDA review also highlighted observational data that current bivalent boosters provide additional protection against symptomatic infection or emergency department and urgent care visits and hospitalization.”

The doctor also stated that while the “simplification of the current COVID vaccination process is greatly needed…discussion by the FDA advisory committee meeting confirmed the importance of getting a dose of the updated Omicron bivalent COVID vaccine. The current bivalent booster is working well against circulating variants.”For those who become infected, Dr. Fryhofer said “physicians and their patients need to know about the therapeutic options, like oral Paxlovid, Remdesivir infusions, and if those aren’t available, oral Molnupiravir, and how to get them. Use of convalescent plasma has also been authorized.”

With regard to what the future may bring, keeping in mind that COVID is not flu, the FDA’s Dr. Peter Marks has supported the concept of giving COVID boosters in the fall as a tag-along to the already established seasonal flu vaccine campaigns as a way to keep hospitals already challenged by flu and RSV from being further overwhelmed by COVID. Dr. Fryhofer also stated that the “FDA proposed a system that’s very similar to what we do for flu—reviewing data for COVID variants in the spring, announcing any COVID vaccine strain changes in June, with updated vaccines available in the fall.”

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