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If you received a double dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine or the one shot Johnson & Johnson (J&J) did earlier this year, you’re probably on edge these days, wondering when it’s your turn to receive a reminder. It’s been a month since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of a booster dose of Pfizer, who was the first of three COVID-19 vaccines in the United States to submit its necessary papers. Less than a week later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee met and it only took the CDC director a day. Rochelle Walensky, MD, to endorse the recommendation. Since then, eligible Pfizer beneficiaries have been lining up to get their reminders, but the message has been clear to those who have received one of the other two COVID-19 vaccines – don’t try to push your way through the line. waiting for a Pfizer recall; wait your turn to boost with the original vaccine you received. Now, however, we finally have a clear idea of what the boosters timeline looks like for those with Moderna or Johnson & Johnson. Read on to find out when it’s finally your turn!
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Reuters reports that the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet on October 20 and 21 to make recommendations on booster doses for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. It is a week after that the FDA committee will meet to discuss the need for recalls of the two vaccines on October 14 and 15.
It’s similar to the schedule with the Pfizer booster EUA: the FDA board met on September 17 to review Pfizer’s data, then CDC’s ACIP met on September 23 to provide its guidance, and the next day, Sept. 24, Walensky approved the committee’s advice, but added two more categories of eligible people who could get a Pfizer recall. This means that if everything goes the same with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, the CDC director could approve the boosters by October 22.
“So on October 14, the FDA advisory board will start considering Moderna boosters,” Allison arwady, MD, MPH, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, told local NBC News media. “A week or two after that, we should have some advice for the folks who had Moderna as their first series and probably J&J as well.… Before the end of October, I would expect that we would have some advice.”
Of course, many questions remain: how long will you have to wait between your first injections and your booster, and who will be eligible to receive them? To answer the latter question, in the case of Pfizer, U.S. adults 65 and over, residents of long-term care facilities, people under 65 with underlying medical conditions, and people in high-risk professional and institutional settings (such as healthcare workers or people in prison). But it remains to be seen who will be eligible for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters.
As to the timing, however, it seems likely that the Moderna booster and the Johnson & Johnson booster will follow Pfizer’s vaccine recommendations that recipients should wait at least six months after their last initial dose to get a booster. Like Pfizer, Moderna also tested its boosters on recipients after six months. “Neutralizing antibody titers had significantly decreased prior to the recall at approximately 6 months,” the company said in a statement announcing that the recall data had been subject to FDA EUA approval. “A booster dose of [Moderna] at the 50 µg dose level, the neutralizing titers increased significantly. “
Johnson & Johnson announced the results of its Phase 3 trial data in September, including information on boosters, and then filed for EUA with the FDA on October 5. increased antibodies. “Our clinical program has revealed that a booster of our COVID-19 vaccine increases the levels of protection of those who have received our single injection vaccine to 94%. We look forward to our discussions with the FDA and other health authorities. to support their decisions regarding boosters “, Mathai Mammen, MD, PhD, global head of research and development for Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement.
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As research has shown recently, even the two mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, don’t work exactly the same. Studies have shown that protection against COVID-19 with the Moderna vaccine does not wane as quickly as it appears with Pfizer. A September 24 CDC study found that the Moderna vaccine was still 93 percent effective in preventing hospitalization in adults who were not immunocompromised in the United States in the midst of the March-August Delta wave; meanwhile, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines had fallen to 88% and 71%, respectively.
All this to say that the Moderna vaccine dosage may be a little lower because it is still quite protective. While the Pfizer booster is a true third shot with the same amount of vaccine as the first two, when Moderna submitted data to the FDA requesting an assessment for its September 1 booster, it recommended a half-dose booster of 50 µg. “The initial Moderna series was actually a little higher than Pfizer and the booster may be a little lower, but for adults, for the Pfizer booster, it’s exactly the same … for the first, second and second. booster, ”Arwady told NBC 5 Chicago. (The original Moderna series was 0.5ml per injection, while Pfizer’s was 0.3ml per dose.)
“We are delighted to initiate the process of submitting our 50 µg dose booster candidate with the FDA. Our submission is supported by data generated with the 50 µg dose of our COVID-19 vaccine, which shows robust antibody responses against the Delta variant, ”Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement when the documents were submitted.
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For those worried about side effects, which are expected when your immune system responds to a vaccine, evidence shows that they are similar to those reported after the second dose of Moderna or the initial dose of Johnson & Johnson.
In late September, the CDC released a recall report that analyzed 22,191 volunteers who responded to an agency survey on their smartphones after receiving three doses of the COVID vaccine. Of those interviewed, 10,453 had received three doses of Moderna; 11,209 had received three shots from Pfizer; and about 50 had received two hits from Johnson & Johnson. What they found was that the side effects of the boosters were very similar to those after the second dose of the mRNA vaccines: 79.4% reported local reactions, that is, reactions isolated to the site. injection after the third dose, compared to 77.6% who said the same thing after the second. . Meanwhile, 74.1% reported systemic reactions to the booster, that is, side effects elsewhere in the body, such as fatigue or fever, compared to 76.5% after their second dose.
The group of subjects in the Johnson & Johnson study was smaller, which led the CDC to write in its report: “The number of reporters who reported receiving 2 doses of the Janssen vaccine… was small, limiting any conclusion. ” However, in Johnson & Johnson’s report on its trial, the company said, “The vaccine, when given as a second dose or as a booster, remained generally well tolerated.”
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