CDC panel unanimously recommends Novavax Covid-19 vaccine for adults

In this photo illustration a silhouette of a man holding a medical syringe and a vial seen displayed in front of the Novavax logo on a screen.

The two-dose Covid-19 vaccine was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a primary series for adults on Tuesday.

The CDC committee voted unanimously to recommend the vaccine for people ages 18 and older after reviewing the shots. The director of the CDC could give the go-ahead for vaccinations this week.

The CDC panel recommended Novavax.

One of the early participants in the U.S. race to produce a vaccine to protect against Covid-19 was endorsed by Walensky. The small Maryland company received a lot of money from the government, but struggled to get a manufacturing base in place and fell behind Pfizer and Moderna.

At a time when more than three-fourths of U.S. adults are fully protected with Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson's shots, Novavax will enter the U.S.

The vaccine will allow people who don't want to take Pfizer and Moderna's shots to do so. According to the CDC, there are anywhere from 26 million to 37 million unvaccinated adults in the US.

According to the Health and Human Services Department, the Biden administration has secured over three million doses of the vaccine.

The main target population for Novavax will be 10% to 13% of the population that are unvaccinated.

The hope is that the vaccine will change the population from not beingvaccinated to beingvaccinated.

When the alpha variant of Covid was dominant, Novavax's shots were effective at preventing illness and preventing severe disease. There is no data on the effectiveness of the shots against omicron and its subvariants.

Novavax's vaccine appears to produce a strong immune response against omicron and its subvariants, which suggests that it is effective against the variant. Members of the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine committee were impressed by the company's data against omicron.

According to the FDA, Novavax's vaccine appears to have a risk of heart inflammation called myocarditis. Four cases of myocarditis and pericarditis were flagged by the FDA as part of Novavax's clinical trial.

There is an increased risk of myocarditis for adolescents after the second dose of Pfizer and Moderna. According to the CDC, Covid is more likely to cause heart inflammation than Pfizer or Moderna's shots. The most common causes of myocarditis are viral infections.

Pfizer and Moderna use the same platform for their vaccines. The Novavax vaccine is based on existing technology.

The company creates inactive copies of the virus by putting genetic code into an insect virus. The spike copies are used to make the vaccine.

The spike proteins is used by the virus. The body's immune system is made up of spike copies of the vaccine that help it fight off infections. The bark of a South American tree is used to make an ingredient in Novavax's vaccine.

Pfizer and Moderna use different technologies for their vaccines. Their shots deliver messengerRNA to human cells, which then produce inactive copies of the spikeProtein to generate an immune response to fight the virus. The FDA approved Pfizer and Moderna's vaccine.

Pfizer's and Moderna's shots are kept at normal refrigerator temperatures.

The FDA has approved Pfizer and Moderna's shots for every age group in the U.S., but health officials have struggled to convince millions of skeptics to take the shots.

Ahead of an expected fall vaccine campaign, the U.S. plans to modify the vaccines to target the more transmissible BA.4 or BA.5 omicron subvariants. The variant of the Covid vaccine is less effective at preventing infections from omicron, but they still protect against severe disease.

The U.S. health officials believe changing the formula of the vaccines to target omicron variant will give them more protection against the virus this fall.

The original strain of the virus that first emerged in China is the basis of Novavax's vaccine. Like Pfizer and Moderna, Novavax is developing vaccines that target the omicron variant, but company executives have said it's not clear that they need to roll out an updated shot.

The CDC and FDA did not approve mixing and matching Novavax's vaccine with Pfizer's and Moderna's shots as a booster. Novavax wants the FDA to approve a booster shot for its vaccine.