© Grahm S. Jones/Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Jupiter was a 14-year-old Amur tiger.
Despite the passage of time, no Covid-19 vaccine has been developed for animals. Currently, animals can contract Covid-19 through humans. Most pets that develop Covid-19 get it directly from contact with infected human owners. Please be careful if you have any animal pets or friends.
Learn more from the CDC here: https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/covid-19/pets.html
In its announcement today, the FDA said the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be marketed as Comirnaty and was authorized for emergency use for individuals from the age of 12 years and up.
Approximately 92 million individuals out of 170 million vaccinated people in the United States have received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Just days after the Biden administration announced that it would offer booster doses to vaccinated adults starting in September, the FDA has fully approved the Pfizer vaccine.
FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said the approval of the vaccine was a "a pivotal moment" for the United States' fight against the coronavirus. Healthcare providers can continue to existing vaccine supplies they have as the FDA approved vaccine and the EUA authorized vaccine have the same formulation.
U.S. health officials including the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy are hopeful that the FDA clearance will pave the way for unvaccinated people to get vaccinated.
“For businesses and universities that have been thinking about putting vaccine requirements in place in order to create safer spaces for people to work and learn, I think that this move from the FDA, when it comes, will actually help them to move forward with those kinds of plans.”
Initially vaccine makers applied for emergency use authorizations (EUA) to get vaccines out to the public due to the gravity of the situation, the emergency of the pandemic and the speed at which the coronavirus was impacting people all over the country and the world. This helped in getting the vaccine out to citizens right away, while Pfizer worked on getting its vaccine fully approved by the FDA.
The FDA fast tracked pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s vaccine in July of this year, working around the clock to ensure that the vaccine was effective. Using real-world data pulled from hundreds of millions of people globally, the FDA also inspected manufacturing facilities. The FDA’s approval process was significantly faster than normal, completed in 97 days.
Moderna has also applied for full approval of its Covid-19 vaccine. Johnson & Johnson has not yet filed an application for FDA approval.
With FDA approval, the vaccines are more likely to gain acceptance in the unvaccinated. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey of US adults in July of this year showed that as high as 33% of Americans surveyed were not vaccinated and were reluctant because the vaccine was too new, not sufficiently tested and unknown. Some individuals surveyed said they would not take the vaccine unless it was required.
Some employers including United Airlines, Walmart, Facebook, Google, Disney and Microsoft have announced their plans for requiring vaccines for employees. The Pentagon also plans to make the vaccine mandatory for all active duty members by mid September.
This will impact requirements in educational settings, which has been previously resisted.
Currently, the Pfizer vaccine is available only for individuals aged 12 and older.
Five routine childhood vaccines are required throughout the country to date pre-coronavirus. Theses vaccines are for diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus or DTaP, chickenpox, poliio and MMR. All of these vaccines are FDA approved.
Pfizer will have trial data for children aged 5 to 11 by the end of September and can then apply for a vaccine for children under the age of 12, and then will be working on the next set for children of aged 2 to 5. Both Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are also working on studies in children for their vaccines.
The FDA reiterated that the vaccine did not apply to children under the age of 12 asa they did not have sufficient data and had not approved the existing vaccine for use in children under the age of 12.
Outlined by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a new plan for booster shots was announced today, calling for a third dose eight months after receiving a second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The new doses are expected to be available by Sept. 20.
People who received the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would also need to get a booster shot, but health officials are waiting on more data before giving an official prognosis. All booster shots would need to be evaluated by both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a CDC advisory panel before being recommended.
As the highly contagious and infectious Delta variant continues to spread rapidly across the country, vaccines have been losing ground proven by numerous studies.
“Our plan is to protect the American people, to stay ahead of this virus.”
The announcement came after officials stated that vaccine protection has been proven to weaken over time. Noting the worsening situation in Israel among many people who have already been inoculated, officials pointed out that it was important that the U.S. get ahead of the problem before the situation got worse where there is an increase in hospitalizations and deaths among the already vaccinated.
“We have a responsibility to give the maximum amount of protection.”
The federal government has also required that nursing homes issue a mandatory vaccination for all staff in order to keep receiving federal funds, to thus protect elderly residents as many workers still remain unvaccinated despite the high risks.
First boosters would be available to people in high priority groups such as nursing home residents, health workers and individuals with underlying health conditions. Boosters should also be the same brand of vaccine originally received. Earlier this month, U.S. health officials had already recommended a third shot for people with weaker immune systems such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients.
“Part of leadership is being able to see around the corner and make hard decisions without having all the data. It seems to me that’s what they’re doing here.”
By adding boosters, the government would be expanding its already massive vaccination campaign. Approximately 200 million Americans have received at least one vaccine shot.
Variants like the Delta variant have caused major concern among scientists about the effectiveness of vaccines to stop virus mutations, who aim to answer the question as data comes in. Data from analyzing reported COVID-19 infections in residents of nearly 15,000 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities revealed that both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are less effective now, falling from 74% in March to 53% by July. Another study in New York State showed that vaccines protected against hospitalizations by 95% during a three-month period but effectiveness against new variants declined from 92% in early May to 80% by late July. A Mayo Clinic data report from Minnesota about patients showed that Moderna’s vaccines was 76% effective against the Delta variant, while Pfizer’s was 42%.
As vaccine protection is expected to wane over time, officials estimated an eight-month timeframe for protection.
The Delta variant has worsened conditions across the country, leading to packed emergency rooms in the South and West, with 140,000 cases per day on average, skyrocketing four times higher than just a month ago. Covid-19 has killed over 620,000 Americans.
