New Covid boosters approved as CDC set to decide who should receive them

New Covid boosters from Pfizer and Moderna designed to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and are expected to be made available later this week. Health officials say that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now sign off on it amid rising cases of Covid across the US. The FDA said in a statement on Monday that anyone over the age of five is eligible to receive a single dose of the updated vaccine if it is at least two months since their last dose of any Covid vaccine. ‘Vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,’ said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. ‘The public can be assured that these updated vaccines have met the agency’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality. We very much encourage those who are eligible to consider getting vaccinated.’