The Biden administration hopes to make getting a COVID-19 booster as routine as going in for the yearly flu shot.
That’s at the heart of its campaign to sell the newly authorized shot to an American public that has widely rejected COVID-19 boosters since they first became available last fall.
Shots of the updated boosters, specifically designed by Pfizer and Moderna to respond to the omicron strain, could begin within days. U.S. health advisers recommended today that most Americans get the modified doses and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to adopt those recommendations. The U.S. government has already begun shipping some of the 170 million shots it purchased and is emphasizing that everyone will have free access to the booster.
White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said this latest round of shots will offer protection during the busy cold and flu season, with the hope of transitioning people to get the vaccine yearly. Typically, at least half of U.S. adults get a flu shot.
“We expect them to provide more durable protection over time,” Jha said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. “The goal very much is to get to a point where people get their COVID shot on a regular basis, the way they do their flu shot.”
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