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On Aug. 31, 2022, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of updated COVID-19 booster shots that are specifically tailored to combat the two most recent and contagious omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5. Following the FDA’s emergency use authorization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to endorse the shots, allowing them to be administered within days.
The new booster shots—one by Moderna and another from Pfizer-BioNTech —come as more than 450 people are still dying of COVID-19 every day in the U.S.
As of Aug. 31, 2022, only 48.5 percent of booster-eligible people in the U.S. have received their first booster shot, and just under 34 percent of those eligible have received their second. These low numbers may in part be influenced by people waiting for the newer versions of the vaccines to provide better protection. But booster shots have proven to be an essential layer of protection against COVID-19.