Vaccines

A: Updated boosters should be available by mid to late September in the US. For most people it makes sense to wait, even if you are eligible for a booster now. 🚀 TL; DR; The updated booster is a better match to currently circulating variants. This means it will provide better protection against initial infection Read more…

Those Nerdy Girls are cheerleaders for any and all advances in science that improve people’s lives. We could argue that no breakthrough has been more important in keeping us healthy than the development of vaccines! August is celebrated as National Immunization Awareness Month in the US, so what better time to get nerdy about the Read more…

A: Yes. It looks like an updated formula with an XBB variant will be headed our way soon in the US. TL;DR: ✅Fall boosters will be comprised of one (a “monovalent”) XBB strain. ✅The closely related XBB strains protect well against each other, so vaccine makers will pick one (might be XBB1.5). ✅The original SARS-CoV-2 Read more…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has amended the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines. These changes have now been officially approved by the CDC. An additional dose of bivalent vaccine is now allowed for: ➡️ People aged 65 and over more than 4 months past their last dose. ➡️ Read more…

“Receiving more than one updated booster is not currently authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.” The US CDC issued the above guidance this week (March 27th), stating: “At this time, one updated booster dose is recommended for everyone in order to maintain protection from severe illness.” **Correction: This article was corrected on March Read more…

A: Yes, you can and Ramadan Mubarak! Islamic leaders and scholars agree that getting the COVID-19 vaccine does not break the fast for Ramadan. If you have not yet gotten your primary vaccine series or bivalent booster, you still can! Read on for more answers to your questions about Ramadan and COVID-19 vaccines. Ramadan is Read more…

Yes…and no. A past COVID-19 infection does provide good protection against re-infection and severe disease–IF you survived your first infection. Vaccination is still by far the safest way to get your first look at the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and build immune defenses for a future encounter. A recent meta-analysis of 65 studies from 19 countries Read more…

A: Scientists are working on it, but it may be a year or longer before they are available in the U.S. and E.U. Several groups in the U.S. are working to develop nasal vaccines for COVD-19, but most are still doing pre-clinical trials in animals. Two groups have progressed to studying humans, and one of Read more…