Novavax: The New Kid In Town

 

One month after granting emergency use authorization for adults to receive a brand new and different kind of COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the use of Novavax for teenagers 12-17 years old.

Novavax is late to the vaccine party. American teenagers 16-17 years old became eligible to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine along with adults in December 2020; 12-15-year-olds became eligible in May 2021. The Moderna vaccine was approved for use in teens 12 years and up in November 2021. (The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has only been approved for adults and has fallen out of favor due to episodes of serious blood clots in a tiny number of recipients.)

The new “kid” in town is not a mRNA vaccine like Pfizer and Moderna, or a viral vector vaccine like J&J. Instead, Novavax is a more traditional, protein-based vaccine similar to others that have been safely used for decades (influenza, hepatitis B, and pertussis are three examples that come to mind).

Two doses of Novavax spaced 3-8 weeks apart are approximately 90% effective in preventing symptoms of COVID-19, however, that estimate comes from clinical trials held prior to Omicron’s emergence as the dominant variant earlier this year. The vaccine has not been approved for booster doses, so recipients of Novavax will need to look to Pfizer and Moderna for one (or two) of those important added shots.

Side effects from Novavax are what you might expect from most vaccines given to humans these days, including the other COVID-19 vaccines; fever, chills, fatigue, soreness at the injection site, body aches, and headache are all possible and usually mild, if they occur at all.

Logistical advantages Novavax has over the mRNA vaccines is the ease in which the vaccine can be stored (no freezer needed), prepared (no dilution necessary), and administered.

Another important feature: Just like Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, Novavax is safe to give at the same time as other vaccines. (Reminder: it’s time to start planning your family’s flu vaccines!)

Public health officials hope that Novavax’s familiar technology will attract people who have been holding out and refusing to get vaccinated, leading to a surge in vaccine-acquired immunity which appears to be stronger and longer-lasting than natural immunity (ie. antibodies acquired while experiencing an infection).

Roughly 80% of all Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine; 67% have had two doses and are considered fully vaccinated, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker. Vaccine uptake has been highest in senior citizens (92% of folks 65 years and older are fully vaccinated) and lowest in infants and children. Unfortunately, only about half of those who are 12 and older and eligible to receive a booster dose have gotten one, and only one-third of people 50 and older have gotten the second recommended booster shot. The additional doses have been especially important in helping people fight the Omicron subvariants.

At this point it’s probably safe to believe the roughly 20% of adults when they say, two-and-a-half years after this devastating global pandemic began, that they will never get any of the four COVID-19 vaccines that are now available, regardless of the technologies used to create them or their convenience and cost (free-of-charge at most pharmacies). That stubborn refusal might be the biggest reason why the acute distress, long-term disability and permanent death caused by coronavirus won’t end anytime soon.

Read more about the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine from the CDC here and the American Medical Association here.

Find the American Academy of Pediatrics’ handy Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine Dosing Quick Reference Guide here.

 

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source http://www.thepediablog.com/2022/08/30/novavax-the-new-kid-in-town/