This week the CDC and the PA Department of Health confirmed that children ages 12 and older are now eligible for a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster.

On Wednesday, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s Paxlovid, an antiviral pill for oral use, to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and children ages 12 years of age and older.

As we face high COVID-19 and flu infection rates, social media and the news have been relentless in their warnings of overrun emergency departments as we move into the winter months and holiday season.

On December 8, BioNTech and Pfizer said a three-shot course of their COVID-19 vaccine was able to neutralise the new Omicron variant

On December 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to 16 and 17 year olds, for a single use booster dose.

On Oct. 21, 2021, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved to expand the use of COVID-19 booster vaccines in certain populations.

On January 14, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) declaration for COVID 19 will be renewed for another 90 days. The renewal of the PHE is effective Jan. 16, 2022 (the date the PHE was previously scheduled to expire). The federal PHE will now extend to April 2022.

Beginning the week of September 20, 2021, the Biden Administration will make some updates to vaccination requirements for healthcare settings.

While the COVID-19 Mu variant has been widely discussed in the media, neither the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) nor the World Health Organization (WHO) have published much other than the WHO identifying Mu’s status (of interest) on their website. It is the fifth coronavirus variant the WHO is monitoring.

PAMED has been working to address COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, especially in diverse communities, and has partnered with some of our physician members who are multi-lingual. Check out and share our videos in a variety of languages that provide the facts and dispel common myths.

On Aug. 23, 2021, the Pfizer vaccine got full FDA approval for ages 16 and older. It is still available under emergency use authorization, including for individuals 12 through 15 years of age and for the administration of a third dose in certain immunocompromised individuals.

On Aug. 18, 2021, public health and medical experts from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that they have developed a plan to begin offering booster shots this fall subject to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducting an independent evaluation and determination of the safety and effectiveness of a third dose of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines and CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) issuing booster dose recommendations based on a thorough review of the evidence.