Amid a summer uptick in COVID hospitalizations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s newly-minted director Dr. Mandy Cohen stressed “we are in our strongest position yet to fight COVID-19,” as the agency prepares to recommend updated – and potentially annual – vaccines in just weeks. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s newly-minted director Dr. Mandy Cohen said updated COVID-19 vaccines will be available in mid-September

  • The new shots are tailored to the current dominant versions of COVID-19 

  • Dr. Cohen added she expects the new vaccine coming out in September to be reccomended as an annual shot  
  • COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen for six straight weeks, according to CDC data, but the figures are still well below those at the same time one year ago 

On a call with reporters to discuss the Biden administration’s strategy around the virus heading into the fall, Dr. Cohen said the new COVID booster shots – which are currently going through FDA regulatory review – should be available by mid-September. 

The new shot, Dr. Cohen added, “is tailored to be effective against the current dominant versions of COVID-19.” 

Although emphasizing she doesn’t want to get ahead of scientists at the FDA and CDC, Dr. Cohen added she expects guidance that Americans should get the new vaccine on an annual basis – a potential move that has already sparked questions from Republicans in Congress. 

“We expect the new vaccine coming out in the middle of September to be an annual COVID vaccine because of those factors: the fact that the virus changes and our immunity changes and decreases over time,” she told reporters. 

In an interview with Spectrum News in July, Dr. Cohen said the agency was “on the precipice” of recommending annual COVID shots. 

“We anticipate that COVID will become similar to flu shots, where it is going to be you get your annual flu shot and you get your annual COVID shot,” she said. 

In response, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic’s Chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Dr. Cohen asking for information on such a potential recommendation. 

In the letter, Wenstrup wrote that if such guidance occurred “it will mark a significant change in federal policy and guidance regarding COVID-19 vaccines and the way in which they are utilized.” 

Well before Dr. Cohen’s tenure at the CDC began, Dr. Anthony Fauci said in Sept. 2022 it was becoming “increasingly clear” that the U.S. would move toward annual COVID shots.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen for six straight weeks. Over the last two weeks, the weekly COVID-19 hospital admissions grew from 10,454 as of Aug. 5 to 15,067 as of Aug. 19, according to the CDC.

But Dr. Cohen emphasized the need to put the rise in context, pointing out that the roughly 15,000 figure is less than half of what the weekly COVID hospitalization figures were a year ago, which was about 38,000. 

For those who may have missed a previous booster shot, Dr. Cohen encourages waiting for the updated vaccine.