Newly updated Covid booster shots designed to target omicron’s BA.5 subvariant should be available within in the next three weeks. That begs an important question: Who’s going to be eligible to get them?

The short answer: anyone ages 12 and up who has completed a primary vaccination series, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson tells CNBC Make It. It’s unlikely to matter whether you’ve received any other booster doses or not before, the spokesperson says — but if you’re unvaccinated, you won’t be eligible for the updated formula until you complete a primary series with the existing Covid vaccines.

Read more at CNBC.

The Colorado Department of Public Health published an online dashboard Thursday to track rising monkeypox cases — and corresponding demographic data — across the state.

Why it matters: Thousands of vulnerable Coloradans are waitlisted for the vaccine, and the new tool could help local health leaders ensure the limited doses go to the people and communities that need them most.

By the numbers: Of the 168 known monkeypox cases in the state, nearly two-thirds have been in metro Denver.

Read more at Axios Denver.

After a bumpy start, the Biden administration is trying to smooth out the vaccination campaign aimed at controlling the country’s growing monkeypox outbreak.

The effort now rests on a new and untested strategy of dividing up what were previously full doses in order to stretch the limited stockpile of vaccines in the U.S.

This comes as monkeypox cases have climbed well above 14,000 in the U.S. – a case count higher than any other country in the world – and yet many local health departments still report not having enough vaccines to reach all those who are considered at heightened risk of contracting the disease.

Read more at NPR.

About three months into the ongoing monkeypox outbreak in the US, there are more than 12,000 cases and counting.

But despite a growing supply of the Jynneos vaccine — and a new strategy that could stretch the current supply five times further — there is still no evidence that protection is reaching those most at risk.

“If you think about the reality that there’s a limited amount of vaccinations available, you really want to understand which groups to go after first,” said Dr. Stella Safo, an HIV primary care physician and founder of the advocacy group Just Equity for Health.

“That is the equity lens — that we’re not all experiencing diseases and different social determinants of health equally. So therefore, the treatments and the available resources should also target those who need them the most.”

Read more at CNN.

For the health officials who steer vaccination campaigns, it’s going to be a complicated fall.

The U.S. plan to roll out updated Covid-19 boosters will not only coincide with the logistical tangle of the regular flu shot drive, but will also face questions about when people should get the new shots to provide themselves with the best protection through our third Covid winter.

It’s a balancing act that health officials run into every year with flu. Vaccinating tens of millions of people takes weeks. People also need a few weeks after their shot for their immune systems to be fully primed. And yet, vaccinators don’t want to put shots in arms too early, either. The power of the flu shot wanes over months, so the concern is that someone who gets a shot in say, September, may lose a chunk of their protection if the peak of the season is going to be in February.

Read more at STAT News.

Novavax Inc (NVAX.O) said on Monday it had filed for U.S. authorization for use of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose in people who had either received its shots or a different vaccine.

The application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration comes in the face of a slow rollout in the United States, where the Novavax vaccine was authorized in July, despite expectations that it would convince vaccine skeptics to get inoculated.

“It’s important for people to have a choice as they evaluate how to stay protected against COVID-19,” Chief Executive Officer Stanley Erck said in a statement, referring to the Novavax vaccine that uses a traditional technology.

Read more at Reuters.

The news that the poliovirus has been found circulating in New York City wastewater fueled a wide range of reactions in city parents on Monday. Some were unfazed. Others were terrified.

Public health officials, however, had a simple message for them: Get your children vaccinated. If they are vaccinated, they are safe.

In South Williamsburg, a largely Hasidic enclave in Brooklyn where the polio vaccination rate among 5-year-olds is the lowest in the city, mothers in playgrounds pushed swings and watched their children play. With only one case found so far, in a Rockland County resident who became paralyzed, several mothers said they thought of the situation as something to watch out for, but not an imminent threat.

Read more at The New York Times.

As kids head back to school, they’ll need more than new supplies. Many students will be getting a new round of required vaccines.

August is Immunization Awareness Month, a time to make sure we are all up to date on required vaccinations. The most common vaccines kids will need are for measles, mumps, whooping cough, and polio.

“These vaccines truly have made an impact on getting rid of these illnesses, which is why parents may not have heard of them or experienced them,” says Dr. Reggie Washington, Chief Medical Officer of Presbyterian/St. Luke’s and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children.

Read more at CBS.

A polio case identified in New York last month is “just the very, very tip of the iceberg” and an indication there “must be several hundred cases in the community circulating,” a senior official with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN on Wednesday.

The case was found In Rockland County, which has a stunningly low polio vaccination rate. Dr. José Romero, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, noted that the majority of people with polio don’t have symptoms and so can spread the virus without knowing it.

“There are a number of individuals in the community that have been infected with poliovirus. They are shedding the virus,” he said. “The spread is always a possibility because the spread is going to be silent.”

Read more at CNN.

With the monkeypox vaccine still in short supply, the Biden administration is changing how the vaccine is administered in order to stretch its limited number of doses.

On Tuesday afternoon, federal health officials announced their decision to allow the JYNNEOS vaccine to be administered between layers of skin — what’s known as an intradermal injection — rather than into the fat as is currently done.

By offering the shots in this way, only a fifth of the full dose is needed for each person.

Read more at NPR.