Dr. Fauci Says COVID Vaccines Could Become Annual Like Flu Shots

Top health officials from the Biden administration said that Americans should anticipate getting an updated COVID-19 booster shot every year.

"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 during a briefing.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized updated booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer that are designed to protect against the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. The new vaccines have been shipped out and should be available starting this week.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky noted that the BA.5 subvariant accounts for 85% of new COVID cases in the U.S., while the BA.4 subvariant makes up 11% of new cases.

"For the first time since December of 2020, these vaccines, our vaccines, have caught up with the virus," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said.

"Barring those variant curveballs, for a large majority of Americans, we are moving to a point where a single annual COVID shot should provide a high degree of protection against serious illness all year," he added.