The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for adults Tuesday, clearing the way for Americans to receive shots that deploy a more traditional technology than the dominant messenger-RNA shots.
Director Rochelle Walensky green-lighted the new vaccine hours after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 12-0 to endorse the vaccine from the Gaithersburg, Maryland, company in meeting that gauged the pandemic situation and reviewed safety data from Novavax.
“We now have four safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines available to protect Americans against serious illness, hospitalizations, and death,” President Biden said.
The vaccine is making its debut late in the pandemic but it could sway some holdouts. It is protein-based technology that has been used for decades in vaccines for things like shingles and hepatitis B.
“We believe a protein-based alternative may increase uptake,” Filip Dubovsky, the chief medical officer for Novavax, told the committee.
The vaccination rate in the U.S. has been stuck in neutral — about two-thirds of the population — for many weeks, and there is concern about the BA.5 coronavirus variant sparking a new wave of disease.
Unvaccinated adults were 3.5 times more likely than vaccinated individuals to be hospitalized for COVID-19 and nine times more likely to die from the disease, according to data that ran through May and was presented to the advisory committee.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized the COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax for emergency use last week, making CDC action the final step before shots can reach arms.
Advisers indicated that any increase in vaccination rates could be beneficial.
“I’m hoping that it will be directed at people with vaccine hesitancy,” said Pablo J. Sanchez, an ACIP adviser and professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University.
He said people might be heartened by the fact this vaccine, unlike others, did not use aborted fetal tissue in its manufacturing or testing process.
However, a Morning Consult poll of nearly 1,800 unvaccinated Americans suggests the new shot might not move the needle that much.
Pollsters said 77% would probably or definitely not get a traditional protein-based COVID-19 shot if one were authorized, compared to 10% who said they probably or definitely would.
The poll found that 28% of the unvaccinated think protein-based vaccines are safe, compared to 17% who think the m-RNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are safe.
Messenger RNA is being used in a widespread fashion for the first time in history. It uses a snippet of genetic instructions to help the body identify and fight the virus.
The Novavax vaccine, by contrast, uses a very small amount of the virus spike protein, which sparks an immune response, in combination with an adjuvant, which boosts the immune system’s response to the vaccine.
It is given in two doses, 21 days apart. It is authorized for those 18 and older.
Its shots showed 90% efficacy against symptomatic infection in studies against the original strain and early variants, putting it roughly on par with the mRNA vaccines’ initial results.
However, the Novavax vaccine was not tested in trials against the omicron variant. The company said immune-response tests found a third shot could spur protection against omicron and, like other companies, it is working on an omicron-specific shot ahead of a likely fall booster campaign.
The Biden administration ordered 3.2 million doses of the vaccine in anticipation of authorization.
By contrast, more than 200 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer and Moderna shots, and tens of millions more have received boosters from those companies.
The vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is also available, but regulators, citing a rare but severe blood-clotting disorder in some recipients, have limited its use to those who cannot access another vaccine or risk an adverse medical reaction to one of the other types.
Novavax was among several promising vaccine candidates in Operation Warp Speed but it fell behind other companies in the vaccine race in 2020.
Manufacturing issues further delayed its submission to the FDA, though it already has been authorized in other countries.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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