WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Updated booster shots are anticipated to gain FDA approval and hit the market as soon as next week. The news comes amid reports of renewed COVID-related measures and worries that full-scale mandates could make a pre-election comeback.
ABC News reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is likely to greenlight injections, which are reportedly formulated to target the XBB.1.5. variant of the coronavirus, a subvariant of omicron. Officials also argue it will be effective against the most recently observed strain, known as BA.2.86.
On September 12, an advisory panel for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to consider their vaccination recommendations based upon eligibility.
“The CDC director is expected to sign off, with shots to be available soon after,” ABC reported.
The jabs are anticipated to hit the market as early as September 13.
The news comes after U.S. President Joe Biden said late last month that he was asking Congress to fund the development of the new COVID-19 jab.
Shortly thereafter, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke to reporters about the updated COVID shot and confirmed that the Biden administration wants Americans to get it.
READ: Biden admin to begin ‘encouraging’ Americans to take new COVID shot this fall
“Vaccinations against COVID-19 remains the safest protection for avoiding hospitalization, long-term health outcomes and death, which is why we are going to be encouraging Americans to stay up to date on their vaccines,” Jean-Pierre said.
She did not mention that the available COVID-19 injections fail to provide lasting protection, do not stop transmission, and have been linked to serious side effects up to and including death.
And critics of the newest round of shots have argued the injections are unnecessary and harmful.
Dr. Paul Alexander, a Canadian health researcher who held a role in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the Trump administration during the initial COVID outbreak, reacted to the news by denouncing it as “utter garbage.”
“Those taking the booster will not only have an ineffective vaccination but will be at risk for infection as the vaccine is driving the vaccinated to become infected and also becoming severely ill,” he said.
He advised Americans not to “fall for the garbage” and to “take none of these boosters.”
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John Campbell, a retired nurse teacher from the U.K. with a diploma in nursing from the University of London, a BSc in biology from the Open University, an MSc in health science from the University of Lancaster, and a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Bolton, said of the new BA 2.86 variant in an August 29 YouTube video that it’s “very unlikely it’s going to make people sicker.”
“In fact, all the evidence so far shows that it is not,” he said. “Personally, I’m not worried about this. It’s just to be expected that there’s going to be viral evolution.”
Campbell also referenced an article in the journal Nature in which Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center viral evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom similarly suggested the new variant was not a cause for alarm.
“I don’t think anybody needs to be alarmed by this,” Bloom said. “The most likely scenario is that this variant fizzles out, and in a month nobody other than people like me even remember that it existed.”