BALTIMORE — The Food & Drug Administration announced it will roll out an updated booster vaccination shot for COVID-19.
The authorized booster is expected to be more effective against omicron and other variants.
"It contains elements from the original virus as well as a spike protein, from the ba4 ba5 variant group," said Dr. Stuart Ray, Professor of Department of Medicine and Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
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The updated boosters got a final approval Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control, for ages 12 and up, for Pfizer bivalent booster, ages 18 and up, for Moderna bivalent booster.
Doctor Ray said after a few more hurdles the boosters will be available to the public.
"The FDA looks at the data to see if it looks suitable and then the CDC, which oversees vaccinations, then goes through a process to make sure its aligned well and they help with logistics to make sure it's available."
Dr. Ray said the side effects for the boosters look to be the same as before.
He said those who have not had a vaccine or booster in the last six months will benefit the most from the new boosters.
"Some people have recently been infected or recently had a booster and those people will probably wait a bit to get this new one because if you’ve recently been infected or recently received a booster you’ve got pretty good protection against omicron," Dr. Ray said. "But that's going to wain so we will be hearing more in the coming weeks and months."
Fall and winter are right around the corner.
Dr. Ray said vaccines and boosters remain the safest ways to gain immunity from the virus.
"It's worth noting we're at a pretty high level of transmission right now," Dr. Ray said. "We sort of a plateaued at the end of the summer, but things could be very different."
Alyson Cohen said she said she plans to get boosted to continue to protect herself and others.
"I personally am going to get boosted," Cohen said. "I work with older people, and more than anything, I'm doing it for their sake."
Derell Cuthrell told WMAR-2 News he is skeptical of the process.
"The vaccine, I've been against it," Cuthrell said. "I said I wasn't going to get it. Maybe if they didn't come out with so many boosters, I would think about getting it. It's just every booster I hear about, it seems more and more unsafe."
