- Model estimates who benefits most from frequent COVID-19 boosters Medical Xpress
- Interim Effectiveness of Updated 2023–2024 (Monovalent XBB.1.5) COVID-19 Vaccines Against COVID-19–Associated Emergency Department and Urgent Care Encounters and Hospitalization Among Immunocompetent Adults Aged ≥18 Years — VISION an CDC
- Monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccine shows 51% protection against COVID hospitalization cidrap.umn.edu
- Updated COVID-19 Vaccination Effective Against ED/Urgent Care Encounters HealthDay
- The fall COVID-19 shot’s effectiveness, and other respiratory virus news this week The Globe and Mail
Tag Archives: boosters
NCAA goes easy on Miami in first NIL case decision — but warns boosters it’s no ‘green light’ – The Athletic
- NCAA goes easy on Miami in first NIL case decision — but warns boosters it’s no ‘green light’ The Athletic
- NCAA and Miami agree to penalties relating to recruitment of Haley and Hanna Cavinder Yahoo Sports
- NCAA Issues First NIL Ruling, With Cavinder Twins at the Center of It Sports Illustrated
- NCAA puts Miami women’s basketball on probation for year WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale
- NCAA gives Miami 1-year probation for recruiting violation The Associated Press – en Español
- View Full Coverage on Google News
U.K. to end COVID-19 boosters for people under 50: reports
Doctors demand end to COVID-related mandates
Dr. Meryl Nass and Children’s Health Defense Organizer Michael Kane joined ‘Fox & Friends First’ to discuss why they decided to author a letter demanding an end to the mandates.
Healthy British residents under 50 will no longer be able to get COVID-19 boosters beginning next month, according to reports.
The Daily Mail reported that officials are urging those under 50 to get one last shot before the program is laid to rest.
A nurse prepares to administer a COVID vaccine.
(REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo)
This is the program’s first scaling back, which started out with lockdowns and mandatory masks.
JAPAN TO DOWNGRADE COVID-19 CLASSIFICATION TO A LESS SERIOUS DISEASE ON MAY 8
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, or JCVI, said the transition continues to move away from a pandemic emergency response and toward pandemic recovery.
The U.K. is expected to continue offering the first vaccine doses to anyone over the age of 16, but boosters are a different story.
Medical doctor giving injection to make antibody for coronavirus
(iStock)
Once in effect, only people over the age of 50 will be able to get a booster, although people who are younger and immunosuppressed will qualify.
SPAIN TO LIFT MANDATORY MASK RULE ON PUBLIC TRANPSPORT ON FEB. 7
The Autumn COVID boost program began in September 2022, and offered boosters to people over 50, residents and employees at nursing homes, and frontline workers. The shot was also offered to anyone from five to 49 who are a clinical risk, live with an immunosuppressed individual or considered caretakers.
The U.K. will end its Autumn COVID booster program on Feb. 12.
Government data show that 64.5% of people over 50 in the U.K. have received their shots, as have 82.4% of those who are age 75 or older.
“The vaccination programme continues to reduce severe disease across the population, while helping to protect the NHS,” Professor Wei Shen Lim, chairman of COVID vaccination on the JCVI said. “That is why we have advised planning for further booster vaccines for persons at higher risk of serious illness through an autumn booster programme later this year.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The announcement of the program’s close comes as the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, proposed this week treating COVID-19 vaccines the same way the annual flu shot is treated.
The program aims to simplify future vaccination efforts – and under this strategy, most adults and children would receive a once-a-year shot to protect against the mutating virus, FDA officials said.
U.K. to end COVID-19 boosters for people under 50: reports
Doctors demand end to COVID-related mandates
Dr. Meryl Nass and Children’s Health Defense Organizer Michael Kane joined ‘Fox & Friends First’ to discuss why they decided to author a letter demanding an end to the mandates.
Healthy British residents under 50 will no longer be able to get COVID-19 boosters beginning next month, according to reports.
The Daily Mail reported that officials are urging those under 50 to get one last shot before the program is laid to rest.
A nurse prepares to administer a COVID vaccine.
(REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo)
This is the program’s first scaling back, which started out with lockdowns and mandatory masks.
JAPAN TO DOWNGRADE COVID-19 CLASSIFICATION TO A LESS SERIOUS DISEASE ON MAY 8
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, or JCVI, said the transition continues to move away from a pandemic emergency response and toward pandemic recovery.
The U.K. is expected to continue offering the first vaccine doses to anyone over the age of 16, but boosters are a different story.
Medical doctor giving injection to make antibody for coronavirus
(iStock)
Once in effect, only people over the age of 50 will be able to get a booster, although people who are younger and immunosuppressed will qualify.
SPAIN TO LIFT MANDATORY MASK RULE ON PUBLIC TRANPSPORT ON FEB. 7
The Autumn COVID boost program began in September 2022, and offered boosters to people over 50, residents and employees at nursing homes, and frontline workers. The shot was also offered to anyone from five to 49 who are a clinical risk, live with an immunosuppressed individual or considered caretakers.
The U.K. will end its Autumn COVID booster program on Feb. 12.
Government data show that 64.5% of people over 50 in the U.K. have received their shots, as have 82.4% of those who are age 75 or older.
“The vaccination programme continues to reduce severe disease across the population, while helping to protect the NHS,” Professor Wei Shen Lim, chairman of COVID vaccination on the JCVI said. “That is why we have advised planning for further booster vaccines for persons at higher risk of serious illness through an autumn booster programme later this year.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The announcement of the program’s close comes as the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, proposed this week treating COVID-19 vaccines the same way the annual flu shot is treated.
The program aims to simplify future vaccination efforts – and under this strategy, most adults and children would receive a once-a-year shot to protect against the mutating virus, FDA officials said.
Updated Covid-19 boosters continue to offer substantial protection even against the rapidly spreading XBB.1.5 subvariant
CNN
—
The updated boosters are cutting the risk that a person will get sick from Covid-19 by about half, even against infections caused by the rapidly spreading XBB.1.5 subvariant.
The studies, conducted by researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are one of the first looks at how the bivalent boosters have continued to work in the real world as the virus has evolved. The data shows that the boosters are continuing to offer substantial protection against currently circulating variants.
The near real-time data was collected by Increased Community Access To Testing program, which administers Covid-19 tests through pharmacies. It includes results for adults receiving tests at participating pharmacies from December 1, 2022 to January 13, 2023.
Out of nearly 30,000 test results included in the analysis, more than 13,000 (47%), were positive for Covid-19.
More people who tested negative had gotten an updated, bivalent booster compared with those who tested positive.
The study results show that the updated boosters are most effective for younger adults.
For adults between the ages of 18 and 49, the boosters cut the odds of getting a symptomatic infection caused by the BA.5 subvariant by 52%, and it cut the odds of getting an infection caused by XBB or XBB.1.5 by 49%. For adults ages 50 to 64, the new boosters cut the odds of getting sick with Covid-19 by 43% for BA.5 and 40% for XBB subvariants. For those age 65 and older, the boosters cut the odds of an infection with symptoms by 37% and 43% for BA.5 and XBB subvariants, respectively.
The study authors saw little evidence of waning effectiveness two to three months after people got their shots.
The study authors said that these are just estimates of how well the vaccines are protecting people against an infection that brings on symptoms like cough or fever. They are probably working even better against more severe outcomes like hospitalization and death.
“What we know from past experience is generally that the vaccines protect better against more severe disease. So these are estimates for symptomatic infection and we would expect that similar estimates for hospitalization and death would be higher,” lead study author Ruth Link-Gelles, a senior epidemiologist at the CDC, said in a news briefing on Wednesday.
Link-Gelles cautioned that these vaccine effectiveness numbers are averages. Because everyone is unique in terms of their underlying health, their past exposure to the virus, and other factors, these estimates of vaccine effectiveness may not apply on an individual level. She said it’s important to think of them on population level.
To hasten the study results to the public, the researchers used a shortcut to estimate which Covid-19 infections were caused by the BA.5 subvariant and which were caused by the newer XBB recombinant subvariant and its XBB.1.5 sublineage.
Test results use a series of probes, or markers, to identify a positive case. Some variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 have mutations in their spike protein that causes one of the test markers to fail. This is called an S-gene target failure.
In the study, test results that showed an S-gene target failure were considered to be an infection caused by a BA.5 subvariant. Those that were S-gene target positive, were considered to be caused by the XBB or XBB.1.5 sublineage.
Even bivalent updated COVID-19 boosters struggle to prevent omicron subvariant transmission – an immunologist discusses why new approaches are necessary
By almost any measure, the vaccination campaign against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been a global success.
As of January 2023, more than 12 billion vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 have been administered in an effort that has saved countless lives – more than 14 million in the first year of vaccine availability alone. With a 95% efficacy in the prevention of severe infection and death, and better safety profiles than similar historically effective vaccines, the biomedical community hoped that a combination of vaccination and natural immunity might bring the pandemic to a relatively quick end.
But the emergence of new viral variants, particularly omicron and its array of subvariants, upended those expectations. The latest omicron strain, XBB.1.5. – dubbed “Kraken”, after a mythical sea creature – has rapidly become the dominant subvariant in the U.S. The World Health Organization is calling it the most contagious strain so far, with its success almost certainly attributable to an ability to dodge immunity from previous vaccines or infections.
The effort to get ahead of these ever-changing variants is also in part what has led the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider its approach to COVID-19 vaccination. On Jan. 23, 2023, the agency proposed that current guidelines for a series of shots followed by a booster be replaced by an annual COVID-19 vaccine that is updated each year to combat current strains. The proposal is set to be reviewed by the FDA’s science advisory committee on Jan. 26.
Limitations of current mRNA vaccination strategies
Unfortunately, the new bivalent shots, which include components from both the original SARS-CoV-2 strain as well as a recent omicron variant, have not performed as well as some scientists had hoped. Although there is no question that the updated jabs are capable of boosting antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2 and helping to prevent severe illness and hospitalization, several studies have suggested that they are not necessarily more capable of preventing omicron infections than their predecessors.
As an immunologist who studies how the immune system selects which antibodies to produce and immune responses to COVID-19, these new results are disappointing. But they are not entirely unexpected.
When COVID-19 vaccines were being rolled out in early 2021, immunologists began having public discussions about the potential obstacles to rapidly generating updated vaccines to emerging viral strains. At the time, there was no hard data. But researchers have known for a very long time that immunological memory, the very thing that offers continued protection against a virus long after vaccination, can sometimes negatively interfere with the development of slightly updated immune responses.
The failure of these new bivalent vaccines in widely preventing omicron infections suggests that our current approach is simply not sufficient to interrupt the viral transmission cycle driving the COVID-19 pandemic. In my view, it’s clear that innovative vaccine designs capable of producing a broader immunity are badly needed.
Vaccines are designed to generate immune memory
In simplest terms, vaccines are a way to give your immune system a sneak peek at a pathogen. There are several different ways to do this. One way is to inject inactivated versions of a virus, as has been done with polio. Another is to use noninfectious viral components, such as the proteins used for flu vaccines.
And most recently, scientists have found ways to deliver mRNA “instructions” that tell your body how to make those noninfectious viral components. This is the approach used with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines targeted against COVID-19.
The mRNA-based vaccines all train your immune system to identify and respond against critical components of a potential invader. An important part of that response is to get your body to produce antibodies that will hopefully prevent future infections, helping to break the cycle of person-to-person transmission.
In a successful response, the immune system will not only produce antibodies that are specific to the pathogen, but will also remember how to make them in case you encounter that same pathogen again in the future.
The specter of ‘original antigenic sin’
But what happens when the virus evolves and that memory becomes obsolete?
Immunologists have wondered this since the initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Recently, it has found new relevance in light of the FDA’s proposal for an updated annual COVID-19 shot.
While it is possible that immune responses to updated vaccines will simply replace the old ones, that has not been true for influenza. With flu, researchers have learned that preexisting immunity to one strain can actively inhibit the ability to respond well against another.
Put in everyday language, think of a virus as a car trying to run you over. You might produce one kind of antibody against the hood, one against the bumper and one against the hubcaps that prevents the wheels from turning. You have produced three kinds of antibodies specific to the car, but it turns out that only the hubcap antibodies effectively slow it down.
Now the car mutates, like SARS-CoV-2 has. It changes the shape of the hubcaps or it removes them altogether. Your immune system still recognizes the car, but not the hubcaps. The system doesn’t know that the hubcap was the only effective target, so it ignores the hubcaps and ramps up its attack on the hood and bumper.
In ignoring the new hubcap response, the immune system’s memory of the original car is not only obsolete, but it is also actively interfering with the response necessary to target the new car’s wheels. This is what immunologists call “original antigenic sin” – ineffective immune memory that hampers desired responses to new pathogen strains.
This sort of interference has been extremely difficult to quantify and study in humans, although it may become easier with the FDA’s proposal. A once-yearly approach to COVID-19 vaccination opens the door for more straightforward studies on how memory to each vaccine influences the next.
Multi-strain vaccinations offer hope
Simultaneously, significant efforts are being made to prioritize the pursuit of a single-shot or “universal” vaccine. One approach has been to take advantage of emerging research showing that if your immune system is presented with multiple versions of the same pathogen, it will tend to choose targets that are shared between them.
Presented with a Model T, Ford F-150 and electric Mustang all at once, your immune system will often choose to ignore differences like the hubcaps in favor of similarities like the shape and rubber on the tires. Not only would this interfere with the function of all three vehicles, but it could theoretically interfere with most road-based vehicles – or viral threats such as variants.
Researchers have begun making rapid headway using this approach with the development of complex multi-strain flu vaccines that are performing well in early clinical trials. New studies focused on SARS-CoV-2 hope to do the same. Persistent pathogens including influenza and HIV all suffer from versions of the same antibody-targeting issues. It is possible that this pandemic may serve as a crucible of innovation that leads to the next generation of infectious disease prevention.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 8, 2021.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
It was written by: Matthew Woodruff, Emory University.
Read more:
Matthew Woodruff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
BQ, XBB omicron subvariants pose serious threat to boosters
Evusheld injection, a new COVID treatment that people can take before becoming symptomatic, in Chicago on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022.
Chris Sweda | Tribune News Service | Getty Images
The omicron subvariants that have become dominant in recent months present a serious threat to the effectiveness of the new boosters, render antibody treatments ineffective and could cause a surge of breakthrough infections, according to a new study.
The BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB and XBB.1 omicron subvariants are the most immune evasive variants of Covid-19 to date, according to scientists affiliated with Columbia University and the University of Michigan. These variants, taken together, are causing 72% of new infections in the U.S. right now, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
related investing news
The scientists, in a study published online Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Cell, found that these subvariants are “barely susceptible to neutralization” by the vaccines, including the new omicron boosters. The immune response of people who were vaccinated and had breakthrough infections with prior omicron variants was also weaker against the subvariants.
“Together, our findings indicate that BQ and XBB subvariants present serious threats to current COVID-19 vaccines, render inactive all authorized antibodies, and may have gained dominance in the population because of their advantage in evading antibodies,” the scientists wrote.
Although these subvariants are more likely to cause breakthrough infections, the vaccines have been shown to remain effective at preventing hospitalization and severe disease from omicron, the scientists wrote.
The study examined blood samples from people who received three or four shots of the original vaccines, those who received the new omicron boosters after three shots of the original vaccines, and individuals vaccinated with the original shots who also had breakthrough infections from the BA.2 or BA.5 subvariants.
For people who received the omicron boosters, antibodies that block infection were 24 times lower against BQ.1, 41 times lower against BQ.1.1, 66 times lower against XBB and 85 times lower against XBB.1 compared to their performance against the ancestral strain that emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019.
However, people who received the omicron boosters had modestly higher antibody levels against all of these subvariants compared with people who received three or four shots of the original vaccines, according to the study.
People who were vaccinated and had breakthrough infections had the highest antibody levels of any group in the study, though neutralization was also much lower against the subvariants than the ancestral strain.
The subvariants have evolved away from previous versions of omicron in dramatic fashion. BQ.1.1, for example, is about as different from omicron BA.5 as the latter subvariant is from ancestral Covid strain, according to the study.
“Therefore, it is alarming that these newly emerged subvariants could further compromise the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines and result in a surge of breakthrough infections, as well as re-infections,” the scientists wrote.
XBB.1, however, presents the biggest challenge. It is about 49 times more resistant to antibody neutralization than the BA.5 subvariant, according to the study. XBB.1, fortunately, is currently causing no more than 1% of infections in the U.S., according to CDC data.
BQ.1.1 and BQ.1 represent 37% and 31% of new infections respectively, while XBB is causing 4.7% of new infections, according to CDC data.
Antibodies ineffective
Key antibody drugs, Evusheld and bebtelovimab, were “completely inactive” against the new subvariants, according to the study. These antibodies are used primarily by people with weak immune systems.
Evusheld is an antibody cocktail used to prevent Covid in people with weak immune systems who don’t respond strongly to the vaccines. Bebtelovimab is used to prevent Covid from progressing to severe disease in organ transplant patients and other individuals who cannot take other treatments.
“This poses a serious problem for millions of immunocompromised individuals who do not respond robustly to COVID-19 vaccines,” the scientists wrote. “The urgent need to develop active monoclonal antibodies for clinical use is obvious.”
The FDA has already pulled its authorization of bebtelovimab nationwide because it is no longer effective against the dominant omicron variants in the U.S. Evusheld remains authorized as the only option for pre-exposure prophylaxis.
New Covid infections increased by about 50% to 459,000 for the week ending Dec. 7, according to CDC data. Covid deaths increased 61% to nearly 3,000 during the same week. Hospital admissions have plateaued at 4,700 per day on average after rising in November, according to the data.
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, in a press briefing last month, said U.S. health officials are hoping there’s enough immunity in the population from vaccination, infection or both to prevent the massive surge of infections and hospitalizations the U.S. suffered last winter when omicron first arrived.
Covid-19 vaccine boosters for kids age 5 and under
CNN
—
Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the bivalent Covid-19 booster for children 6 months to 5 years old. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has since recommended the booster, and now everyone 6 months and older is able to receive the updated coronavirus vaccine except kids who got three doses produced by Pfizer/BioNTech.
Which young children are now eligible to receive the booster? What if kids haven’t started or completed the full series — do they now get the updated booster or the original monovalent vaccine? Can parents and guardians choose between the updated booster and the original shot? What are possible side effects? What if kids had Covid-19 already? And which families should consider the updated booster now and who could wait?
To help us answer these questions, I spoke with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician, public health expert, and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. She is also author of “Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health” and the mother of two young children, ages 2 and 5.
CNN: Let’s start with what has just changed in the recommendations: Which young children who received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine are now eligible to receive the booster?
Dr. Leana Wen: There are two vaccines authorized for young children: Moderna and Pfizer. For the youngest age group, the Moderna vaccine was designed to be a two-dose primary vaccine, while the Pfizer version was designed to be a three-dose primary vaccine. That means young children are considered to have completed their primary series if they completed two doses of the Moderna vaccine or if they completed three doses of Pfizer.
As a reminder, there is now a bivalent booster available for older children and adults. This combines the original (also called monovalent) vaccine with a vaccine that specifically targets the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants. Because Omicron subvariants constitute virtually all new infections, the hope is that the bivalent booster will provide better, more directed protection.
What federal health officials have now said is that children 6 months through 5 years old who received both doses of the original Moderna vaccine are able to get the updated bivalent vaccine — if it has been at least two months since they completed the primary vaccine series.
For children who received the Pfizer vaccine, the guidance is a little different, because the primary series already involves three doses. Federal health officials have said that children 6 months through 4 years old who have not yet completed their three vaccine doses can receive the third dose as the bivalent vaccine. Let’s say a child has started this series and has had one or two doses of the original Pfizer vaccine. The third dose can now be the updated booster.
CNN: What if kids haven’t started or completed the full series — do they now get the updated booster or the original monovalent vaccine?
Wen: The answer is different for Moderna vs. Pfizer. For Moderna, the primary series is two doses, so a child needs to complete the two initial shots with the original formulation. The booster — the third dose — is the bivalent vaccine. For Pfizer, the primary series is three doses. The first two doses still need to be the original formulation, but the third shot is now the bivalent vaccine.
CNN: What about young children who completed three doses of the Pfizer vaccine — are they eligible for a fourth dose?
Wen: No. The FDA explicitly says that children 6 months through 4 years old who have completed their three-dose primary series with the original Pfizer vaccine are not eligible for a fourth shot of the bivalent booster. That’s because the primary series of three vaccine doses is still expected to have strong protection against severe illness to Omicron. This recommendation will be reevaluated as new data comes out.
CNN: Can parents and caregivers who have not completed the primary series of Moderna choose the bivalent vaccine as their second dose?
Wen: No. The FDA authorization for the adult primary series for Moderna — the two doses — is for the original monovalent vaccine. Similarly, there is no choice for which vaccine formulation is administered as the booster for Pfizer in adults. Only the bivalent booster is available as the third shot, not the original monovalent, which is still given as doses one and two. This mirrors the authorization given for adults — the primary series is the monovalent vaccine, with the only booster for Pfizer and Moderna for adults being the updated booster.
CNN: What are possible side effects from the updated booster?
Wen: It’s expected that children who get the updated booster will have similar types of side effects to the original vaccines. These side effects tend to be mild and short-lasting, usually resolving in the first 24 hours after inoculation. Adverse reactions can include pain and swelling in the injection site, fatigue, crankiness, sleepiness, headache, muscle aches and sometimes fever. Many children experience no side effects. The risk of serious side effects, such as myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle), is expected to be exceedingly rare in this younger age group.
CNN: What if kids had Covid-19 already?
Wen: People who had Covid-19 can wait three months until after they have recovered from the coronavirus to receive another vaccine dose, according to the CDC. They probably have very good protection against infection in this period.
Many studies have shown that hybrid immunity — recovery from Covid-19 combined with vaccination — conveys very strong protection, arguably even more so than vaccination and boosters alone. In my opinion, I believe a case can be made that if a young child received the primary series and already had Covid, they could wait to receive another booster dose. This is especially true if they had Covid recently, in the last year. To my knowledge, there is no research that shows additional benefit of boosters to young children who recently had Covid-19 infection and who have received their primary vaccinations.
CNN: Which families should consider the updated booster now and who should wait?
Wen: First, I think it’s important to point out that the uptake of the primary series of the Covid-19 vaccines among young children is very low. According to the CDC, less than 5% of kids 5 and younger are fully vaccinated. That means we are referring to a very small pool of kids newly eligible for the updated boosters.
There’s one group that I would definitely recommend getting the updated booster. That’s the group of kids who received their first one or two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. These kids need to complete their primary series. The third dose of that series is now the updated bivalent booster. There’s no reason for families of these children to wait; they should complete the primary series, and it’s a bonus that the third dose is updated to target Omicron.
For children who received the two doses of the Moderna vaccine, I think the decision-making is different and will depend on families’ individual circumstances. Some families are very concerned about Covid-19 infection. Perhaps their child has underlying medical conditions, or they live with someone who is elderly, immunocompromised or otherwise very vulnerable to severe outcomes from Covid-19. Perhaps the family is welcoming a newborn soon, and that baby will be particularly vulnerable to coronavirus infection. I think it’s reasonable to decide that, since Covid-19 cases are rising, this is the time to get their young child the updated booster.
I also think it’s reasonable to wait. My children (ages 2 and 5) received the Moderna vaccines over the summer. They are eligible to be boosted, but I am holding off because the protection that they have against severe illness remains strong. The booster will convey additional protection against symptomatic infection, but that effect is probably short-lasting, according to a June study.
To be clear, I believe it’s crucial for older adults and vulnerable individuals to receive the updated booster. I also think it’s generally a good thing that people can choose the booster if they wish, as there are compelling individual reasons for different households.
Parents and caregivers who have questions should consult their pediatrician to decide the best course of action for their family’s specific circumstances. Finally, families whose children have yet to receive any Covid-19 vaccines should consider starting, especially if their kids are not known to have had Covid-19.
NASA’s Artemis 1 moon rocket boosters could expire in December
As the launch date for NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission continues to get pushed back due to glitches and storms, a deadline for its solid rocket boosters is quickly approaching.
The launch of Artemis 1 — which will use a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, aided by two boosters, to send an uncrewed Orion capsule to the moon — was once again delayed, this time until no earlier than Wednesday (Nov. 16) due to the impending arrival of Tropical Storm Nicole on Florida’s Space Coast. Satellite images show Nicole currently looming in the Atlantic Ocean next to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), generating wind speeds up to 70 mph (110 kph) as it closes in on the center’s Launch Pad 39B, where the Artemis 1 stack sits, ready to ride out the storm.
Now that the Artemis 1 moon mission has been delayed once again, there are concerns that some of its hardware may expire prior to launch. For example, several key deadlines concerning the mission’s two solid rocket boosters, built by Northrop Grumman, are approaching. If Artemis 1 has not launched by mid-December, NASA will have to analyze the boosters to see if they are still launch-worthy past their current expiration dates.
Related: NASA delays Artemis 1 moon launch to Nov. 16 due to Tropical Storm Nicole
During a media briefing on Nov. 3, NASA officials told reporters that several components of the SLS vehicle’s boosters are approaching their current expiration dates, based on the most recent analyses that team members have conducted.
Cliff Lanham, senior vehicle operations manager of the Exploration Ground Systems Program at KSC, told reporters that a countdown begins as soon as a rocket is stacked. That countdown is currently ticking down for the Artemis 1 vehicle.
“When you stack your first segment on the aft segment, you start a clock that was originally 12 months,” Lanhan said. “It’s currently been analyzed up to 23 months, and that expires. One piece expires on the ninth of December of this year, and the other one is the 14th of December of this year.”
Another environmental exposure rating expires on Dec. 15, he added.
If Artemis 1has not launched by those dates, the mission team would have to conduct further analyses to determine if the expiration dates on the rocket’s various components could be extended, said Jim Free, associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“Each of them has a different revisit date — that’s my term — when we have to go back and redo the analysis and look at the assumptions in the analysis. And it’s really more a function of when do we feel like those assumptions are no longer good and the boosters fall into that category,” Free said during the Nov. 3 media briefing. “I think I would be doing our team and you a disservice by saying we can just go forever, because I don’t think that’s the case. I think we look at the analysis every time with a different set of lenses thinking about what else could have changed.”
NASA is currently eyeing a two-hour window for the launch of Artemis 1 opening at 1:04 a.m. EST (0604 GMT) on Wednesday (Nov. 16). If successful, the launch will send an uncrewed Orion capsule into lunar orbit and back. The launch will be the first mission of the Artemis program which will eventually see humans return to the moon near the lunar south pole in 2025 or 2026, with the ultimate goal of establishing a permanent base on the moon.
Follow Brett on Twitter at @bretttingley (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
Rocket Report: SLS boosters may expire in December; Blue Origin delivers the BE-4s
Enlarge / This photo shows the two side-mounted boosters of this week’s Falcon Heavy launch landing in Florida.
Trevor Mahlmann
Welcome to Edition 5.16 of the Rocket Report! If you’re counting, there are now fewer than 60 days until the end of 2022. How many more US rockets will make their debut before the end of the year? SLS? Terran 1? Super Heavy? RS1? None of the above? You didn’t ask, but my over/under would be 1.5 of the above, and that may be a tad optimistic.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets, as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Rocket Lab to attempt booster recovery again. The US-based rocket company says it will make a second mid-air recovery attempt of an Electron booster during the Friday launch of a Swedish scientific satellite, Space News reports. This “Catch Me If You Can” mission is scheduled to launch November 4 at 1:15 pm ET (17:15 UTC) from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. The launch will be Rocket Lab’s second attempt to recover the Electron’s first stage, descending under a parachute, using a helicopter.
Happy hunting! … In the first attempt May 2, a hook hanging from the helicopter grabbed the parachute, but the pilot released it moments later after noticing what the company called “different load characteristics than what we’ve experienced in testing.” The stage instead splashed down and was recovered by a boat. “Our first helicopter catch only a few months ago proved we can do what we set out to do with Electron, and we’re eager to get the helicopter back out there and advance our rocket reusability even further by bringing back a dry stage for the first time,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in a statement about the upcoming launch. (submitted by Ken the Bin and Tfargo04)
Firefly seeking additional capital. Fresh off of putting its first Alpha rocket into orbit, Firefly Aerospace is seeking to raise as much as $300 million in a private fundraising round, Reuters reports. The Texas-based company was valued at more than $1 billion when private equity firm AE Industrial Partners became its controlling shareholder in March, but it has not set a valuation for this round.
How much money is out there? … The new funding would be used to help complete construction of manufacturing facilities for Firefly’s Alpha rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and accelerate development of a medium-lift rocket the company plans to build with Northrop Grumman. Given the challenges of raising new capital for space-based companies in the current environment, it will be interesting to see how much Firefly can tap into. (submitted by Ken the Bin)
Residents fight back against Canadian engine tests. Trent Hills, a municipality in Ontario about halfway between Toronto and Ottawa, has asked the Canadian launch company SpaceRyde to cease rocket engine testing. “Trent Hills has been in receipt of many inquiries, concerns and complaints pertaining to rocket engine testing taking place in the rural area at a site on County Road 29,” Trent Hills Now reported. On October 7, the local government asked SpaceRyde to voluntarily cease testing.
Maybe they can work it out? … The company has until later this month to respond. Some local residents want nothing to do with SpaceRyde, which is aiming to develop a rocket to be launched from a balloon. The municipality, however, said it would be willing to work with the rocket company: “If there remains a desire to continue the use, the Municipality has a range of options both to engage with the site owner and occupier and to address the public’s concerns.” (submitted by JC)