The COVID-19 vaccine is being distributed across California as federal authorities have approved an innovative vaccine formula. It is targeted at the most recent dominant Omicron Delta Variant in Los Angeles and the coronavirus strain that was first identified.
Who can take the “bivalent” shots for Omicron Delta Variant in Los Angeles?
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that those aged 12 or older take the new vaccine boosters. To be eligible, residents should complete their first vaccination regimen more than two months from the last dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.
The updated boosters for Omicron Delta Variant in Los Angeles “can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement Thursday.
“Because protection from infection can decrease over time, the updated boosters are a safe way to maintain protection and reduce the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization, long COVID, and death,” according to a joint statement from the state health and human services secretary, Dr. Mark Ghaly, and the state health officer and public health director, Dr. Tomás Aragón.
Why officials have authorized an Omicron booster?
The standard vaccination regimen and a booster is still doing a decent job. It can protect patients against severe hospitalization and even death. As the coronavirus developed, the original vaccine formulas were less effective in protecting against illnesses, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said at a briefing for news.
What’s new in the booster?
The latest shots are referred to by the name bivalent vaccinations. They’re created to guard not just against the primary coronavirus strain. But also BA.5 and an additional Omicron subvariant known as BA.4. Both subvariants have identical spike proteins found on the surface of the virus.
“The hope here is that by increasing the amount of antibodies we have to that particular variant, we will restore the kind of protection that we had when we first saw these vaccines launched in the late part of 2020 and early part of 2021, where we had very good protection against symptomatic disease,” Marks said, referring to BA.4 and BA.5. “We don’t know for a fact yet whether we will get to that same level. But that is the goal here.”
Califf said these updated boosters “contain the same basic ingredients” as the already available vaccines. Still, they instruct the recipient’s immune system to recognize two kinds of spike proteins instead of just one. As a result, they “are expected to help restore immune protection against COVID-19.”
If you pass the eligibility test for the booster dose for Delta Variant in Los Angeles, must get your shots!
