Novavax -- Approved
Novavax -- Approved
Older vaccine technology available to those who have not been vaccinated yet
Yesterday the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) approved the use of the Novaxax vaccine (by a vote of 12-0) for adults aged 18 and older. Following ACIP’s approval, CDC Director Walensky provided formal approval.
Novavax is both safe & effective.
Please note — the Novavax vaccine was approved as a primary series — meaning it is only available to individuals who are currently unvaccinated. And unvaccinated individuals wanting a Novavax vaccine should be able to get their first dose in the coming weeks (and like the other COVID vaccines, it will be free of charge).
It is important to note that Novavax was NOT approved to be mixed with other vaccines; nor was a booster dose approved. The vaccine is given in a two-dose series. And shots should be given three weeks apart. Novavax is studying a different form of their vaccine that includes the spike protein from the Omicron variant. If that version of the vaccine is found to be safe and effective, they hope it will be available later this year. More to come on this and other Omicron-specific vaccines…
For everyone who has refused to be vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna because they were worried about the (imaginary) long-term safety of the (new) mRNA technology, that excuse can no longer be used. The Novavax vaccine (manufactured by a small Gaithersburg, MD-based company) uses a recombinant protein product to induce immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This technology has been used for decades in other vaccines, such as HPV and influenza. The vaccine works by isolating the spike protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. And then the protein is purified and stabilized. An adjuvant is then added to help the vaccine work better. The protein is unable to induce illness in the individual who is vaccinated, but it does trigger the immune system, and antibodies to the virus are produced.
This technology is not new. We have decades of safety data demonstrating that this type of vaccine is safe and effective. And the Novavax clinical trial demonstrated that their vaccine is safe and effective.
Individuals who are unvaccinated are running out of excuses to avoid this necessary vaccine.
The time to get vaccinated is now.
The BA.5 variant (which is the most dominant form of the virus circulating in the US) is the most transmissible variant yet, and it is threatening to cause a fresh wave of COVID cases (ok, let’s be real… it is already causing a fresh wave of cases). Cases over the past two weeks are up by 24 percent; hospitalizations by 19 percent; and deaths by 33 percent. And during yesterday’s ACIP meeting we learned that individuals who are unvaccinated have a —
2.8 times higher risk of testing positive for COVID-19 compared to vaccinated individuals (age-adjusted1)
3.5 times higher risk of being hospitalized compared to vaccinated individuals (age-adjusted)
9.0 times higher death rate compared to vaccinated individuals (age-adjusted)
Vaccines reduce the risk of illness, hospitalizations, and death.
Vaccines are not perfect, but they are our best line of prevention against COVID-19.
As the BA.5 variant spreads and we prepare for kids to go back to school next month, the time to vaccinate is NOW.
If you have specific questions about which vaccine to get, safety statistics, or when to get a booster, please ask them here.
Age adjustment is the process by which we control for how old an individual is (in other words, remove the effect of age). Age adjustment is done through statistical methods — usually a process called standardization or multivariable regression modeling. For the age-adjusted comparisons presented here between unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals, we can say that there is an increase in testing positive, hospitalizations, and deaths among those who are unvaccinated across all age groups. This means that children who are unvaccinated are 2.8 times more likely to test positive compared to vaccinated kids, as are adults and even older adults. These age-adjusted measures of association provide strong evidence that everyone — no matter what their age — should be vaccinated. RIGHT.NOW.