CDC advisers endorse ‘more traditional’ COVID-19 vaccine for unvaccinated

Editor's Note

On July 19, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisers said the 26 to 37 million adults in the US who have yet to get a COVID-19 vaccination should consider the “more traditional” vaccine Novavax, Modern Healthcare July 19 reports. Novavax is the “first so-called protein vaccine” that has been developed to prevent COVID-19 infection and was authorized by regulators just last week.

COVID-19 vaccines are intended to train the body to fight off the virus by identifying its outer coat, the spike protein. When the body recognizes the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines, it begins producing copies of spike protein, while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine delivers this genetic instruction through a cold virus. The Novavax vaccine, on the other hand, injects duplicates of the spike protein that are laboratory-grown and packaged into nanoparticles that the immune system registers as a virus.

Protein vaccines have been historically used to prevent diseases such as hepatitis B and shingles. Since Novavax’s authorization, the US government has purchased 3.2 million doses. The Novavax vaccine is already being used in Europe, Canada, Australia, South Korea, and other countries, but usage in the US would still require an official sign off from CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky, the article noted.

Two doses of Novavax have been identified as safe and 90% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, according to studies in the US, Mexico, and the UK. Manufacturing problems delayed production of the Novavax vaccine early on.