Covid guidelines 2023: FDA approves updated Covid boosters from Moderna and Pfizer set to arrive soon – latest

The number of children living in poverty in the US more than doubled when pandemic policies were halted, after Congress refused to renew them. The childhood poverty rate jumped from 5.2 per cent to 12.4 percent.

The new Covid variant BA.2.86, also known as Pirola, is being monitored around the world. A recent outbreak at a nursing home in the UK revealed that 22 residents had been infected with the variant, a descendant of Omicron.

Things are becoming clearer about the rollout of the latest Covid vaccine after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week released updated guidance regarding the new Covid-19 vaccines.

Joe Biden is encouraging Americans to “stay-up-to-date on their vaccines” ahead of cold and flu season. Covid cases could rise in the coming months as cold weather sets in, experts say.

Maroosha Muzaffar reports:

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro appeared annoyed when her colleague, Jessica Tarlov, claimed Covid-19 vaccines are safe during a segment on vaccine misinformation. Tarlov responded by reminding Pirro that she got the vaccine and turned out “fine”.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticised the way former president Donald Trump handled the Covid-19 pandemic when the virus first swept through the US in a new interview with Fox News Radio.

The governor called on the former administration to “own what they did”, per reporting from The Hill.

In 2020, then president Trump publicly suggested injecting disinfectants like bleach into humans to combat the virus. In December of that year, he also said it was “terrific” that 15 per cent of Americans had already had Covid. At that time, the daily death toll from Covid-19 in the US had exceeded 2,000 people, as The Independent previously reported.

DeSantis has argued that the US should not have enacted the restrictions that were put in place at the start of the pandemic to try to slow the spread of the virus.

The majority of Americans ignored the bivalent boosters released in September 2022 that were meant to protect them from Covid during the 2022-2023 cold and flu season.

Only a quarter of US adults got the shot, according to data from KFF, a health policy research group. As Dr William Schaffner, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, recently told The Independent, last year’s vaccine was “underutilised and under-accepted”.

But experts are hoping for a better response this year: The CDC is recommending the new vaccines for everyone six months and up. CDC Director Dr Mandy Cohen has said the new vaccines are the best way to protect yourself from severe disease from Covid this fall and winter.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene tweeted an update on vaccine availability Thursday.

The cost of the new Covid vaccines may prohibit some people from getting them, experts are warning. Pfizer and BioNTech set their price at $120, and Moderna doses will be $129. Novavax shots will be $130 per dose, according to reporting from Reuters

Some have argued that the US government should have asked Moderna and Pfizer for price caps on the vaccine, given that the government funded research that led to the development of the shots. Peter Maybarduk, an advocate that works with an organisation called Public Citizen, based in Washington, recently suggested this to KFF Health News. He added that prices for this round of vaccine increased steeply: The last shots were $20 and $30 a dose. “If these vaccines had been kept the same price, what decisions would be made to expand the response?” Maybarduk said.

According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the EG.5 variant, sometimes called “Eris”, is becoming more prominent in the US.

By 16 September, the variant, a descendant of Omicron, will be responsible for 24.5 per cent of Covid cases in the US, per the data. That’s up from 22.3 per cent of cases at the start of the month, on 2 September.