In an effort to hike adult vaccination rates, Los Angeles County will begin offering a new, more “traditional” type of COVID-19 vaccine, Novavax, starting Wednesday.
The two-dose vaccine, the fourth vaccine generated to protect against COVID-19, will be available to county residents 18 years and older who walk into county vaccination clinics beginning on Wednesday. A second dose is administered three weeks after the first.
On Monday, the new vaccine was already being injected into into arms in Long Beach at its Ramona Park COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinic.
The Ramona Park site at 3301 E. 65th St., Long Beach, administers vaccines Monday through Wednesday, from 1 to 5 p.m., and Thursdays and Fridays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s currently the only city-run clinic that offers the Novavax shot, according to the health department.
Pasadena’s Public Health Department is not offering the Novavax vaccine, said Lisa Derderian, city spokesperson.
The Novavax vaccine is made differently than the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. It was developed without the use of mRNA technology and it Novavax does not contain any genetic material. Instead, it uses a “spike protein” produced in insect cells and an immune booster that develops an immune response to the coronavirus.
“This technology has been around for more than 30 years,” said Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, the American Medical Association’s liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and a member of ACIP’s COVID-19 vaccine workgroup during a webinar on Monday, Aug. 1. “It’s already been used in making other vaccines, for example, for flu, hepatitis B and whooping cough.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the vaccine July 13 after it was found to be 90% effective against mild, moderate and severe disease in the company’s Phase 3 clinical trial involving 30,000 participants ages 18 and older.
“Authorizing an additional COVID-19 vaccine expands the available vaccine options for the prevention of COVID-19, including the most severe outcomes that can occur such as hospitalization and death,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said July 13 in announcing the vaccine’s authorization.
There are several reasons why someone who is not vaccinated may decide to get protection against the coronavirus via the new, Novavax vaccine, over the others that have been around for 1 and 1/2 years.
“It is made differently than the mRNA vaccines,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, during a July 26 Board of Supervisors meeting.
“Since it is a more traditional strategy for getting the vaccine prepared, we think that may appeal to some folks that may have been more nervous about the RNA vaccines,” she explained.
Fryhofer agreed, adding that it could persuade vaccine holdouts to roll up their sleeves: “Our vast experience with protein subunit vaccines should be reassuring to those who worry about the newness of mRNA vaccine technology.”
“Additionally, Novavax offers an alternative for those who may be allergic to the mRNA vaccines,” according to a Long Beach Health Department press release.
Vaccines, boosters and masks are a layered approach to slowing the transmission of COVID-19, Ferrer said. The county has experienced a surge since June mostly due to yet another form of the virus, the infectious BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, which increased the number of people hospitalized and moved the county into the “high” activity level in mid-July.
Cases and hospitalizations have been falling in the last week, prompting Ferrer to cancel a mandatory indoor mask requirement on Friday.
In L.A. County about 72.6% of the population has been fully vaccinated, according to state figures. That is similar to Orange County, at 72.3% but way ahead of San Bernardino County, at 56.7% and Riverside County at 59.6%.
Between 26 million to 37 million U.S. adults have not yet been vaccinated, according to the AMA. The Novavax is only for unvaccinated adults, to be used as a primary vaccination against COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration has not authorized it as a booster yet, but that may change in the future, the AMA reported.
Riverside County is preparing to offer the Novavax but has not yet done so. “We will be offering Novavax hopefully by the end of the week or early next week,” wrote Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman for the county’s Department of Public Health in a text message on Monday.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Monday reported 13,373 new COVID cases —7,020 from Saturday, 3,604 from Sunday and 2,749 from Monday. (The county does not release COVID numbers on weekends.)
The new infections gave L.A. County a cumulative total from the pandemic of 3,305,972. Another 41 deaths over the three-day period were also reported, raising L.A. County’s virus-related death toll to 32,747. The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 13.5% as of Monday.
Masking is required at healthcare facilities, jails, on public transit and in airports. Wearing a mask indoors in public spaces is “strongly encouraged” by L.A. County’s public health department.
For more information on vaccines, go to MyTurn.ca.gov. The Novavax vaccine will not be listed as an option on the state website until Aug. 30.
SCNG Staff Writer Kristy Hutchings contributed to this article, as did City News Service.
