FDA announces a plan for once a year booster to simplify vaccine protocols
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – If it's starting to get hard to remember when you last got a COVID vaccine booster, you're not alone.
That's why the Food and Drug Administration has announced a plan to simplify our lives with one shot to be offered at the same time in the fall as seasonal flu vaccines.
Mark Carey has been working non stop since he opened Cafe Hunan near the SMU campus last year.
Like a lot of busy North Texans, the restaurant owner says the COVID-19 pandemic now seems like a distant memory.
"I put it behind me I think I we've all moved forward," Carey said.
That includes getting regular vaccine booster shots.
"I did do a booster probably a year and a half ago," he said.
With more Americans becoming less inclined to get immunized, the FDA has come out with a 25 page report outlining plans to simplify vaccine protocols and create a once a year booster with plans for the "...updated vaccine to be in production in time to be deployed for use no later than September of each calendar year."
It's a welcome idea to North Texas doctors who say the current system is falling behind.
"I think we are seeing people that are just scrambling for their COVID-19 vaccine cards," said Dr. Mark Casanova with the Dallas County Medical Society. "They just can't remember when their last shot was they've lost track of how many boosters and shots they've had."
Casanova, who's had six shots of the vaccine since 2020, says the anti-vax movement continues to discourage people from getting a shot that he insists is safe.
"The bivalent vaccines are working, they're protecting against severe infections, hospitalizations, and certainly reducing the incidence of death," Cassanova said.
The hope among health officials is to create a routine once a year schedule that will increase the number of vaccinations in the US which stand now at around 81% of the population.