It’s coronavirus Year Three, and as the BA.5 Omicron subvariant increases the rate of disease, medical technology is breaking through once again. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) endorsed the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency approval of Novavax, a new COVID-19 vaccine that used a more old-fashioned method in its development, one that might be embraced by anyone leery of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky stated on Tuesday that the Novavax vaccine would become available in the coming weeks.
In an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent, Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, infectious disease expert at Cottage Health, explained the vaccines, their efficacy, and what to expect next in the incrementally evolving pandemic.
How is Novavax different from the mRNA vaccines?