a new covid vaccine targeting the latest variants of the virus could be approved by the end of this week according to reports from the Washington Post sources within the Food and Drug Administration say they're ready to sign off on the updated shot the news comes as the US is experiencing the largest summer surge of infections in two years according to the CDC rates of hospitalization and death are also Rising so the release of a new booster potentially Mak shots available before Labor Day could turn the tide for more I'm joined by Monclair State University epidemiologist Stefanie Silvera Silvera, Stephanie let me first ask you about the timing of this new vaccine which if approved on this schedule will be out a couple of weeks earlier than last Fall's latest booster shot does that give folks an advantage in fighting off the virus I think it does and I think it's especially important that we try to get out ahead of this we know that the numbers are increasing in terms of the number of cases hospitalizations have been going up um and if we look at the Wastewater accounts um cases are really running rampant all over the place so the sooner we can get ahead of this and try to get a little bit under control to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death the better which strain does this vaccine Target and why is it that this strain has been so much tougher I mean this summer wave seems to have hit just about everybody I know so this um new vaccine is really looking at the lineages of KP 311 um these are all under that Omicron variant so these are all sublineages from that last really big wave that we saw that was particularly dangerous what we're finding right now is that the variants that are coming out are doing what we expect them to do which has become more transmissible they're causing illness they're transmitting from one person to the next even easier than they were before now thankfully they don't seem to be causing more severe illness but anytime you have more people who are sick you have the risk of more people having severe illness yeah that makes sense so then what's the advice uh should folks wait for the newest booster to come out or if they are sort of itching to get one right away do they get what's there and then wait the four months that's recommended by the CDC before getting another shot so I think the good news is that the current vaccine does seem to be holding up in terms of preventing severe illness I think if you are an individual who is at high risk either to exposure or to having severe um outcomes right so being hospitalized because you have a comorbidity I would not necessarily recommend that you wait I think that if you are young and otherwise healthy and that you feel like you can avoid coming in contact with people who have covid by you know practicing all the mitiga uh practices that we currently have wearing a mask meeting Outdoors keeping the windows open for ventilation maybe you can hold off a little bit so it sounds like you're saying it depends on what type of protection you're looking for absolutely and I think we're now at a point where um all of our decisions are decision trees really so you have to look at your individual risk both for exposure and for the type of outcome you may have to make a decision on the timing of the vaccination again I think if you are somebody who has a lot of comorbidities who's at very high risk I don't know that I would necessarily wait to get the new vaccine because the current ones are still highly effective that said a lot of us haven't had a booster in quite a while and if you're at high risk you might want to go get it yeah what do you make Stephanie of the fact that the uptake has been lower and lower do you anticipate that because we saw such a big summer Spike more people will be interested in getting a a new round of the shot so I think that what we're seeing is um sort of a return to Baseline around how people feel about vaccinations in general less than half of adults get the flu vaccine every year um historically and I think that that's probably where we're going to start Landing with the covid vaccine I think with there being so much covid going around I know at least four people in the past month who've had covid probably a little bit more um there may be an interest for those who do feel like they're at risk to get vaccinated I think we're also going to start seeing people um stop being quite so fearful of the vaccine it's been around for several years now it is tried and true it is not causing the severe outcomes um in terms of side effects that a lot of people were afraid of and hopefully people will be more comfortable getting vaccinated as time goes on Dr Stephanie Silvera for us thank you so much thank you