The FDA has approved new COVID vaccines'

COVID-19 is not the mass casualty event that it was in the global pandemic from 2020 to 2022; but new strains of the virus has been doing a number on Americans' vacation plans this summer. Now the kids are back in school and the kids are sharing their newest infections. On Thursday the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved new variations on the controversial COVID-19 vaccines.

Both Moderna and Pfizer have prepared new versions of their vaccines to deal with the rapidly evolving strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Updated COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer will be shipped to doctors' offices around the country.

The new vaccines are designed to target the KP.2 strain of COVID the strain that is popping up in emergency rooms around the nation this summer.

The FDA has approved the new vaccines for people 12 years of age and older. They have also approved emergency use authorizations for children as young as 6 months.

The vaccines effectiveness and safety has been widely controversial both within the medical community and beyond.

There is still controversy surrounding the use of m-RNA as a vaccine delivery system and beliefs that the vaccine side effect can range from bell's palsy to brain fog, to fatigue, to blood clots, to myocarditis, to dementia, infertility, to even sudden death.

The pharmaceutical companies and the federal government disputes many of these allegations.

Federal health care authorities hope that the new vaccines will give an extra layer of protection. Most Americans have some legacy covid immunity from previous vaccinations or from actual bouts of COVID. There is concern on the part of healthcare agencies that vaccine hesitancy will lead many Americans to choose not to get the new versions of the vaccine.

Only about 20 percent of Americans got the 2023 update vaccine last year.

Pfizer will be shipping their version of the updated vaccine "immediately" while Moderna is just days away.

There are presently 14,863 known active COVID-19 cases in Alabama.

Over seven million people globally have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in later 2019, including 1.2 million Americans.

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com