FDA: COVID-19 vaccines will be updated and approved before fall season
The FDA announced that the latest updates to Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines are approved and ready for fall use.
The federal government will again provide free COVID-19 testing kits to people across the United States in preparation for the upcoming respiratory virus season in the fall and winter months, health officials announced Friday.
The COVIDtest.gov website will begin accepting orders in late September, said Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Americans can order up to four tests per household, which will be shipped directly to their homes for free.
“Don’t forget to take advantage of these free tests if you are concerned that you or your loved ones may have COVID,” O’Connell said. “They’re no use to anyone if they’re sitting in your medicine cabinet.”
She said this is the seventh time the government has made free tests available to Americans, and about 1.9 billion home tests have already been distributed through the program, which is run in partnership with the U.S. Postal Service.
The announcement comes a day after the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer and Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine formulation, which is expected to arrive at distribution sites across the country in the coming days. This year’s doses are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for everyone 6 months of age and older and target the JN.1 subvariant KP.2.
To prepare for the upcoming season, the CDC will also distribute $62 million from “unused vaccine contract funds” to local and state health departments to provide up-to-date vaccines to people with no or inadequate health insurance, an agency spokesperson said.
The funds are expected to help offset losses from the $1.1 billion Bridge Access Program, which ends on August 31. This program allowed uninsured and underinsured people in the United States to get vaccinated against COVID-19 for free. Since its launch last September, it has vaccinated 1.5 million people.
Contributor: Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY. Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at [email protected].
