Coronavirus Pandemic

Covid Vaccines Will Likely Become Annual Like Flu Shots, White House Officials Say

Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke at a White House briefing on Tuesday

Jatniel Hernandez fills syringes with COID-19 vaccine booster shots at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic on April 06, 2022 in San Rafael, California. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized a second COVID-19 booster of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for people over 50 years old four months after their first booster.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Covid vaccinations will likely become an annual affair, White House officials said Tuesday, with a schedule resembling that of flu shots.

"In the absence of a dramatically different variants, we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual updated Covid-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population," Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a White House briefing.

The reasoning behind this expectation, according to Fauci and White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha, has to do with improved protection from newly updated Covid booster shots.

The CDC voted Thursday to recommend updated versions of both the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccine boosters, paving way for a widespread rollout as early as next week.

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

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