Scott Hensley

At least 58,000 childern younger than 5 years old are hospitalized each year with RSV infections. A Pfizer vaccine given to pregnant people could help protect their infants from severe RSV illness.

Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today endorsed a proposal to make big changes in the nation’s approach to vaccinating people against COVID-19.

The new shots from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech target both the original strain of the coronavirus and the omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants that most people are catching now.

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly voted to recommend that it authorize Novavax’s two-dose vaccine against COVID-19.

The vaccines now in use are based on the form of the virus that circulated at the beginning of the pandemic and are less effective against the omicron variant. New options are in the works.

Pfizer and BioNTech are planning to ask the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a second COVID-19 booster shot for people age 65 and older.

The authorization comes in the midst of an explosion of COVID-19 cases nationwide driven by the omicron variant — a surge that has brought a spike in pediatric hospitalizations.

The medicine, called molnupiravir, is taken twice a day for five days and works by preventing the virus from replicating. Merck says it will have 10 million packs available by the end of the month.

In a highly anticipated decision, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s Paxlovid as the first antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 at home.

The research finds that the medicine, called Paxlovid, was effective in preventing hospitalization and death when taken by people with mild to moderate illness within a few days of symptoms.

If the Food and Drug Administration authorizes use of the drug, called molnupiravir, it would be the first oral COVID-19 treatment that could be taken at home.

CDC director Rochelle Walensky gave the green light to boosters just hours after a panel of vaccine advisors voted unanimously to recommend boosters for anyone 18 and older.

Moderna says a study in kids 6 to 11 found two doses of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine given 28 days apart produced a strong antibody response.

The Food and Drug Administration also gave an OK to boosters that differ from the vaccine originally used to immunize people against COVID-19. A mix-and-match approach could ease the booster rollout.

A panel of experts voted to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration authorize a booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine at least two months after the first shot.

Johnson & Johnson has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a booster for people 18 and older six months after initial immunization, with an option to vaccinate after two months.

Pfizer says data support its request for Food and Drug Administration approval of a third dose of COVID vaccine about six months after the second dose in people 16 years and older.

The approval replaces the emergency use authorizations granted last December and could make it easier for employers, the military and universities to mandate vaccination.

This is the first new drug approved for Alzheimer’s disease since 2003. It’s the first to show significant progress against the sticky brain plaques that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted 20-0 to recommend that the agency authorize Moderna’s vaccine for emergency use during the pandemic. There was a single abstention.