WASHINGTON: The US health authorities are planning to provide annual COVID-19 shots similar to the yearly flu shots.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a more straightforward strategy for upcoming vaccination campaigns, allowing the majority of adults and kids to receive a shot once a year to safeguard against the mutating virus.

As a result, Americans wouldn't need to keep track of their vaccination history or the time since their last booster shot.

The proposal comes at a time when selling boosters is challenging. Only 16% of those who were eligible have received the most recent boosters authorized in August, despite the fact that more than 80% of Americans have received at least one vaccination dose.

At a meeting on Thursday, the FDA will solicit input from its panel of outside vaccine experts. When determining future vaccine manufacturing requirements for manufacturers, the agency is expected to take their recommendations into account.

Scientists from the FDA claim in documents that many Americans now have "sufficient preexisting immunity" to the coronavirus as a result of vaccination, infection, or a combination of both. According to the agency, that baseline of defence should be sufficient to transition to an annual booster against the most recent strains in circulation and make COVID-19 vaccinations more similar to the yearly flu shot.

A two-dose combination may be required for protection in adults with weakened immune systems and very young children. Scientists from the FDA and vaccine manufacturers would examine vaccination rates, infection rates, and other data to determine who should receive a single shot versus a two-dose series.

In addition, the FDA will ask its panel to vote on whether all vaccines should target the same strains. This step would be required to make the shots interchangeable, thereby eliminating the current complicated system of primary vaccinations and boosters.

The first shots from Pfizer and Moderna, known as the "primary series," are aimed at the strain of the virus that first appeared in 2020 and quickly spread around the world. The updated boosters released last fall were also modified to target previously dominant omicron relatives.

According to the FDA's proposal, the agency, independent experts, and manufacturers would decide which strains to target each year by early summer, giving them several months to produce and launch updated shots before the fall. That's similar to how strains for the annual flu shot have long been chosen.

According to FDA officials, moving to an annual schedule would make future vaccination campaigns easier to promote, potentially increasing vaccination rates nationwide.

The original two-dose COVID shots provided excellent protection against severe disease and death regardless of variant, but protection against mild infection has waned. Experts are still debating whether the most recent round of boosters significantly improved protection, particularly for younger, healthier Americans.