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Most Americans should get an updated COVID-19 vaccine, health officials said Tuesday. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed the new shots for everyone 6 months and older and the agency’s director quickly signed off Tuesday on the panel’s recommendation. That means doses should be available this week, some as early as Wednesday. (Stobbe and Neergaard, 9/12)

Mandy Cohen, director of the CDC, advised that anyone 6 months and older should get at least one dose of an updated shot. Her broad recommendation came after the agency’s expert advisers voted for a universal approach to seasonal coronavirus vaccination. The shots are intended to bolster defenses as the nation heads into the fall and winter virus season, when influenza and RSV are also primed to be on the rise. Cohen said the reformulated vaccines can restore protection and provide “enhanced protection” against variants currently responsible for most infections and hospitalizations in the United States. Cohen followed the lead of the agency’s vaccine experts who earlier in the day voted for the universal vaccination policy. (Sun and Nirappil, 9/12)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Why The CDC Has Recommended New Covid Boosters For All

The CDC advises that everyone over 6 months old should, for the broader benefit of all. Those at highest risk of serious disease include babies and toddlers, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with chronic health conditions including obesity. The risks are lower — though not zero — for everyone else. The vaccines, we’ve learned, tend to prevent infection in most people for only a few months. But they do a good job of preventing hospitalization and death, and by at least diminishing infections they may slow spread of the disease to the vulnerable, whose immune systems may be too weak to generate a good response to the vaccine. (Allen, 9/13)

The downsides are pretty small: Research shows that people are only slightly more likely to experience side effects like pain at the injection site, headaches, fatigue or fever if they opt for both shots at once. In one study published last week, researchers in Israel found that the incidence of side effects in people who just got the flu shot was 12.7 percent. Among those who only received the Covid bivalent booster last year, 27.4 percent experienced side effects, and of the people who received both vaccines, 27.6 percent experienced side effects. In other words, you shouldn't worry too much about feeling extra sore or sick if you get both vaccines together. (Sheikh and Blum, 9/12)

The effort to get Americans updated COVID-19 shots this fall will be the first major vaccination campaign without the federal government guaranteeing their availability at no cost. A new federal program and other community efforts will continue providing free vaccines for uninsured people, but experts say it won't be as easy for them to access the shots. (Goldman and Millman, 9/13)

A Texas city council voted on Tuesday to prohibit the enforcement of any COVID-19 mandate implemented at the federal or state level. The City of Odessa's resolution was presented by City Council Member Chris Hanie, who said residents should decide for themselves whether to mask up, KOSA reported. "Nobody’s gonna lose a job because they don’t get a stick or they have to wear a mask," Hanie said. (Mion, 9/13)

A meeting Tuesday of South Carolina lawmakers considering how to best counter future pandemics was dominated by vaccine skeptics pushing concerns about COVID-19 immunizations that are unaccepted by the greater medical community. Members of the all-Republican panel seeking more independence from federal health regulators were receptive to speakers who sewed doubt about vaccine safety and efficacy, as well as distrust in the scientific establishment. Testimony began with an hourlong presentation from Aaron Siri, the managing partner at a New York law firm that 2021 tax filings show received over $3 million from an influential Texas-based group that campaigns against vaccine requirements. (Pollard, 9/12)

A new study in Nature Communications suggests that both prior infection with COVID-19 and prior vaccination with mRNA vaccines can limit the secondary attack rate of SARS-CoV-2.Immunity from prior infections is stronger at limiting contagiousness, but fades quickly, compared to immunity from vaccines, which was longer-lasting. And SARS-CoV-2 infections, of course, come with much higher risks of poor outcomes than do COVID vaccines. (Soucheray, 9/12)