While Batgirl‘s wings were clipped, and an upcoming Batman animated series was scuttled, HBO Max is still ride-or-die with Joker’s best girl.
The adult animated series Harley Quinn, featuring Kaley Cuoco voicing the lead role, has been picked up for a fifth season, the streaming service has announced.
The show, which streams uncensored on HBO Max and runs with its trademark salty language censored on TBS and Adult Swim, also features the voices of Lake Bell as Harley’s girlfriend Poison Ivy, Ron Funches as King Shark, Alan Tudyk as Clayface and The Joker, Christopher Meloni as Commissioner Gordon and Diedrich Bader playingBatman/Bruce Wayne.
The show’s current third season has a 100% critics score on the ratings aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and also features the voices of Kaley’s sister and The Flight Attendant co-star Briana Cuoco as Batgirl/Barbara Gordon, JB Smoove as Frank the Plant, What We Do In The Shadows star Harvey Guillen as Nightwing and Sanaa Lathan as Selina Kyle/Catwoman.
For season four, Harley Quinn writer and Workaholics and Master of None veteran Sarah Peters has been boosted to showrunner.
Kaley posted to Instagram on Wednesday a photo of Ivy and Harley celebrating, noting, “Come on, did you reaaaaallyy think we were goin anywhere?!! @dcharleyquinn season 4 baby!”
She added, “coming to wreak beautiful havoc @hbomax duh!”
Dolly Parton’s newest venture is made specifically with her four-legged friends in mind.
On Wednesday, the country legend announced her new pet apparel and accessories line called Doggy Parton. Including everything from a Microphone Plush Dog Squeaky Toy With Rope to a Blonde Bombshell Wig, the collection features an array of pet-centric items with a signature Dolly twist.
Doggy Parton, a partnership with SportPet Designs, sends part of the proceeds to Willa B. Farms, a Tennessee-based rescue organization that provides a home for all kinds of animals in need.
“‘Puppy Love’was my very first record and six decades later, my love for pets is stronger than ever,” Dolly explains. “This inspired me to start my own line of Doggy Parton apparel, accessories, toys and more with a little ‘Dolly’ flair.”
The Doggy Parton collection will be available on Amazon and the line’s own website, with more retailers to be announced soon.
A fundraiser has been started in support of prolific drummer Atom Willard, who is recovering from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.
Willard, who currently plays in Against Me! and has drummed for bands including The Offspring, Social Distortion and Angels & Airwaves, suffered breaks in his wrist, thumb, collarbone, ribs and toe in the accident, which occurred earlier this month.
The fundraiser, which is up now via GoFundMe, aims to raise $30,000 toward paying Willard’s medical bills.
Since the GoFundMe’s launch, Willard has posted a statement on Instagram thanking those who’ve donated or have otherwise reached out.
“To say thank you just doesn’t feel like enough,” Willard writes. “I am truly overwhelmed by your generosity and kindness. This has been the most terrifying and humbling experience of my life, and accepting help from others is hard for me. So thank you.”
He adds, “I can’t wait to play again, now I can focus on recover and recovery alone.”
Vyacheslav Madiyevskyi/ Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 31, 10:45 AM EDT
IAEA mission arrives in Zaporizhzhia
A long-awaited expert mission from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog arrived in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s team will travel to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant near the town of Enerhodar on Thursday for the first time.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, who is leading the mission, told reporters during a press briefing in Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday that the aim is for his team to establish a permanent presence at the Russian-occupied plant and that the initial phase would take “days.”
When asked if it was possible to demilitarize the site, Grossi said it was “a matter of political will” and that his mission is to preserve Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant. He admitted it was “not a risk-free mission” and underlined that his team would be operating in Ukrainian sovereign territory but in cooperation with Russian forces.
Asked if he thought Russian troops would really give his team full access, Grossi told reporters the IAEA was on a “technical mission” and that he was confident his team could work “on both sides.”
Aug 30, 4:31 PM EDT
Blinken heralds arrival of first shipload of Ukrainian grain to drought-stricken Horn of Africa
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday celebrated the first shipment of Ukrainian grain to arrive in the Horn of Africa — a region facing dire hunger — since Russia’s invasion began.
“The United States welcomes the arrival in Djibouti of 23,300 metric tons of Ukrainian grain aboard the ship Brave Commander. This grain will be distributed within Ethiopia and Somalia, countries that are dangerously food insecure after four years of drought,” Blinken said in a statement.
This is the first shipload to reach the region since a United Nations-brokered deal that allowed ships to leave Ukraine’s ports again.
According to Ukrainian officials, dozens of ships have been able to safely navigate the Black Sea in recent weeks. But State Department officials have claimed Russian allies, like Syria, have unfairly benefitted from recent exports, proving detrimental to countries the World Food Programme has determined are facing a greater level of need.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Aug 30, 4:25 PM EDT
EU preemptively donates 5.5 million potassium iodide tablets to protect Ukrainians from potential radiation exposure
The European Commission said it received a request from the Ukrainian government on Friday for potassium iodide tablets as a preventative safety measure to increase the level of protection around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The European Response Coordination Centre quickly mobilized 5.5 million potassium iodide tablets through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism for Ukraine, including 5 million from the rescEU emergency reserves and 500,000 from Austria.
“No nuclear power plant should ever be used as a war theatre,” EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said. “It is unacceptable that civilian lives are put in danger. All military action around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant must stop immediately.”
-ABC News’ Max Uzol
Aug 30, 2:15 PM EDT
Sens. Klobuchar, Portman meet with Zelenskyy in Ukraine
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov on a visit to the war-torn country.
“The support that the U.S. has given has been strongly bipartisan and we want that to continue,” Klobuchar told ABC News.
Portman noted the psychological advantage of Ukraine now making advances in Kherson, which was the first oblast taken by the Russians six months ago.
It shows that “even when the Russians are dug in, as they are in that region, that Ukrainians can make progress in an offensive,” he said. “And my hope is that we will continue to see that to the point that the Russians will finally come to the bargaining table and stop this illegal, totally unprovoked war on Ukraine.”
-ABC News’ Ibtissem Guenfoud
Aug 30, 11:07 AM EDT
Russian forces shelling corridors leading to nuclear plant, Ukraine says
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russian forces are shelling corridors the International Atomic Energy Agency mission would take to reach the Zaporizhzhia power plant in southeastern Ukraine.
Podolyak said Russian forces are probably shelling the path to ensure the IAEA mission pass through Russian-controlled territory to reach the plant.
Aug 29, 4:38 PM EDT
Zelenskyy vows to reclaim all territory lost to Russian forces
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday vowed to reclaim all territory lost to Russian forces.
“Ukraine is returning its own. And it will return the Kharkiv region, Luhansk region, Donetsk region, Zaporizhzhia region, Kherson region, Crimea. Definitely our entire water area of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, from Zmiinyi Island to the Kerch Strait,” he said in his daily address. “This will happen. This is ours. And just as our society understands it, I want the occupiers to understand it, too. There will be no place for them on Ukrainian land.”
Zelenskyy said his message to Russian fighters is that if they want to survive, it’s time for them to flee or surrender.
“The occupiers should know, we will oust them to the border — to our border, the line of which has not changed. The invaders know it well,” he said. “If they want to survive, it is time for the Russian military to flee. Go home. If you are afraid to return to your home in Russia, well, let such occupiers surrender, and we will guarantee them compliance with all norms of the Geneva Conventions.”
Aug 29, 3:00 PM EDT
White House calls for controlled shutdown of Zaporizhzhia nuclear reactors, DMZ around plant
White House spokesman John Kirby said Monday that Russia should agree to a demilitarized zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and that a controlled shutdown of the reactors “would be the safest and least risky option in the near-term.”
Kirby also expressed support for the IAEA mission to the power plant.
“We fully support the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Grossi’s expert mission to the power plant, and we are glad that the team is on its way to ascertain the safety, security and safeguards of the systems there, as well as to evaluate the staff’s working conditions,” he said. “Russia should ensure safe, unfettered access for these independent inspectors.”
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Aug 29, 1:33 PM EDT
Ukrainian forces launch major counteroffensive
Ukrainian forces have launched a major counteroffensive in multiple directions in the southern part of Ukraine, Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Operational Command, said Monday.
Humeniuk said the situation in the south remains “tense,” but controlled.
Ukrainians have been targeting strategic Russian command posts and slowly advancing toward Kherson for weeks. Kherson was first major city in the south to be captured by Russian forces following the invasion.
Russian military issued a statement confirming the offensive and claiming Ukraine sustained heavy losses.
Meanwhile, at least 12 missiles have struck Mykolaiv, which remains under Ukraine’s control in the south. Two people were killed and 24 were wounded, according to the governor of Mykolaiv Oblast.
-ABC News’ Max Uzol and Natalia Shumskaia
Aug 29, 12:47 PM EDT
Ukrainian official accused of treason is shot and killed
Oleksiy Kovalyov, a Ukrainian official who was accused of treason for openly collaborating with Russia, was shot and killed in his home on Sunday in Hola Prystan, Kherson Oblast, according to preliminary information from the Investigative Committee of Russia (SKR). An unidentified woman was also killed, SKR said.
Kovalyov was a Ukrainian lawmaker from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party who was accused of treason; criminal proceedings were initiated by Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations in June. He is one of the highest-ranking Ukrainian defectors who fled to Kherson after the invasion and openly collaborated with Russia. He was appointed by the Russians as the deputy head of the Kherson Military-Civil Administration.
Aug 29, 12:19 PM EDT
IAEA says mission to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ‘on its way’
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog announced Monday that the agency’s long-awaited expert mission to the Zaporizhzhia power plant in southeastern Ukraine “is now on its way.”
“The day has come,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a post on Twitter.
Grossi, who is leading the IAEA’s “Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia,” has long sought access to the nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe. Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations of shelling at or near the site in recent weeks, fueling fears that the fighting could cause a nuclear disaster.
“We must protect the safety and security of #Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility,” Grossi tweeted, alongside a photo of himself with 13 other experts. “Proud to lead this mission which will be in #ZNPP later this week.”
Shortly after invading neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian troops stormed the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant near the town of Enerhodar, on the banks of the Dnipro River in the country’s southeast. The Ukrainian workers have been left in place to keep the plant operating, as it supplies electricity across the war-torn nation.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the IAEA team will travel to the plant via Ukrainian-controlled territory, state-run TASS reported.
The area around the nuclear plant is controlled by Russian forces. Peskov said once the IAEA team enters Russian-controlled territory, all necessary security will be provided.
Aug 29, 2:21 AM EDT
IAEA says mission to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ‘on its way’
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog announced Monday that the agency’s long-awaited expert mission to the Zaporizhzhia power plant in southeastern Ukraine “is now on its way.”
“The day has come,” Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a post on Twitter.
Grossi, who is leading the IAEA’s “Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhia,” has long sought access to the nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe. Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations of shelling at or near the site in recent weeks, fueling fears that the fighting could cause a nuclear disaster.
“We must protect the safety and security of #Ukraine’s and Europe’s biggest nuclear facility,” Grossi tweeted, alongside a photo of himself with 13 other experts. “Proud to lead this mission which will be in #ZNPP later this week.”
Shortly after invading neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian troops stormed the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant near the town of Enerhodar, on the banks of the Dnipro River in the country’s southeast. The Ukrainian workers have been left in place to keep the plant operating, as it supplies electricity across the war-torn nation.
(NEW YORK) — A lawsuit alleges the Navy “harbored toxic secrets” after jet fuel leaked from a storage facility in Hawaii operated by the Navy, contaminating locals’ drinking water and sickening hundreds of families.
“You’ve got American citizens being poisoned by an American asset on American soil,” Army Major Amanda Feindt, whose family is suing, told ABC News.
In November 2021, health officials and the Navy ordered residents of Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area to stop using tap water after dangerous levels of petroleum products were found in the Navy’s Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam water system. The source was pinpointed back to the jet fuel leak from the nearby Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility.
Hundreds of families reported petroleum odors coming from residential tap water supplied by the Navy water system, alongside reports of health issues caused by the contaminated drinking water.
The DOH had received almost 500 complaints of fuel or gasoline-like odor from people who receive water from the Navy water system.
Numerous families allege that they’re still battling long-term, chronic health issues in the lawsuit. A PGA golf professional says he has had five surgeries since and continues to battle internal bleeding. One family said it has been plagued with abdominal pain, vomiting, memory loss, skin rashes, brain fog, eye irritation, seizures, and teeth and gum issues, all according to the lawsuit.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, many people remain in temporary housing due to the drinking water crisis. Healani Sonoda-Pale, a Hawaii sovereignty activist, says many are still afraid to drink the water.
Activists are calling on the Navy to take action almost a year after the Hawaii Department of Health issued an emergency order against the military agency to address the closure and defueling of the Red Hill facility.
“If the Navy has committed to closing the facility, they need to move with the sense of urgency we as the Kanaka Maoli, native people of Hawaiʻi, feel they must,” said resident and protester Keoni DeFranco in an interview with ABC News.
“We have no other home,” DeFranco added.
“Thousands of O’ahu residents, most especially those still relying on the Navy water system, are still depending on bottled water for their daily needs,” Sonoda-Pale told ABC News. “The employees at the schools directly affected by the last leak are still cautious about their drinking water … even though the Board of Water Supply has said it is drinkable.”
Investigations by the U.S. Pacific Fleet found that the water contamination was a result of the Navy’s “ineffective immediate responses” to the fuel releases at Red Hill. It listed the Navy’s failures in resolving “deficiencies in the system design and construction, system knowledge and incident response training.”
It also said the agency failed to “learn from prior incidents that falls unacceptably short of Navy standards.” The facility leaked 27,000 gallons of fuel from a single tank in January 2014, according to environmental group Sierra Club of Hawaii.
The DOH ordered the Navy to immediately install a drinking water treatment system at the Red Hill Shaft and submit a work plan to assess system integrity. Within 30 days of completing the correction action, the Navy must then defuel the underground storage tanks there.
The EPA partnered with the Navy, Army and the Hawaii Department of Health to restore safe drinking water conditions to the affected residents and workers. The agency say they completed drinking water restoration in March 2022.
The Navy has since released a plan, stating that defueling the underground storage tanks may take until the end of 2024, identifying Dec. 31, 2024 as the earliest date “that is consistent with the safe defueling of the facility.”
However, that plan was rejected — deemed incomplete and “disappointing” by state officials.
Locals say 2024 is too long to wait for the promise of clean water.
“Until the facility is fully defueled and decommissioned, Oʻahuʻs aquifer will not be safe,” said DeFranco.
ABC News has reached out to the Navy for comment on the lawsuit and the demands but has yet to receive a response.
Activists and residents are asking for a new, improved plan for defueling that speeds up the timeline to ensure residents have safe water sooner.
“We fear the Navy will continue to backpedal, stall and drag out the timeline while our aquifer is currently experiencing petroleum contamination directly as a result of their neglect. Red Hill continues to be an ongoing threat to life on Oʻahu,” said DeFranco.
The Red Hill storage facility sits directly above the Southern Oʻahu Basal Aquifer.
According to the DOH, the Navy is responsible for ensuring safe water for nearby residents and ordered the agency to provide alternative drinking water for the roughly 93,000 people who may have been affected.
David Bowie will be the latest artist honored with a stone plaque on The Music Walk of Fame, the London attraction in the city’s Camden Town district, which is renowned for its musical history.
Variety reports that the unveiling ceremony will be held on September 15, followed by a private event that’s expected to be attended by the late rock legend’s friends, fans and musical associates.
Bowie, who was born in the Brixton section of London, performed at Camden’s famed Roundhouse venue three times with his early band The Hype. His unveiling will take place one day before the new officially sanctioned Bowie film Moonage Daydream opens in IMAX theaters. The movie will then get a wider release on September 23.
“David Bowie is a global influence, one of the ultimate influencers and sooner or later, we had to have him on The Music Walk of Fame,” says Music Walk of Fame founder Lee Bennett. “Our intention is for this to be the highest honour a music figure can receive in the U.K. and beyond, the unveiling of David’s stone ensures that legacy.”
He adds, “We have huge plans for the future, but for now, let’s celebrate one of the greats of music.”
In November 2019, The Who became the first artist inducted into The Music Walk of Fame. They were followed by Madness, Soul II Soul and the late Amy Winehouse. In addition to featuring plaques honoring significant people from the music world, The Walk of Fame also serves as a virtual museum — with an app that uses augmented-reality technology to enhance visitors’ experience.
Madonna‘s new dance remix compilation is called Finally Enough Love, so she’s made a video to accompany it titled “Finally Enough Talk.” As there are 50 songs on the album, the video features her answering 50 questions, asked by a female robot voice off camera.
Among the revelations Madonna makes in the video: She’s “gagging to work with Britney [Spears] again,” she regrets “getting married…both times,” the achievement she’s most proud of is her “six amazing children,” and her favorite video she’s ever made is “Take a Bow.” If she wasn’t making music, she says, she’d be “a schoolteacher.”
As the camera follows Madonna around her house, into a golf cart for a ride to her horse barn and then back, she continues answering questions, revealing that her favorite song to perform live is “Like a Prayer,” that her musical inspirations growing up were David Bowie and Blondie‘s Debbie Harry, and that the hardest part of making her upcoming biopic is “cramming my entire life into a feature-length film.”
Asked why she decided to do a compilation of her past dance remixes, Madonna explains, “Because the world needs to dance! We’ve been through enough, haven’t we?”
When asked if she plans to go on tour next year in support of Finally Enough Love and do a “greatest hits kind of concert,” she says coyly, “Do you want me to go on tour?” Hmm.
And of course, because this is Madonna we’re talking about, her answer to many of the questions — including “What is your greatest guilty pleasure?”; “What’s your zodiac sign?”; “What’s your current favorite obsession?”; “What keeps you going?”; “What’s the secret to your success”; and “What is your life mantra?” — is “sex.”
(NOTE LANGUAGE) While Will Smith‘s slap of Chris Rock at the Oscars is still echoing throughout the Fresh Prince star’s career, some fans are turning the tide in his favor, thanks to a joke Rock recently made at the expense of Nicole Brown Simpson.
As reported, Rock recently told a comedy show crowd that he was asked to host the upcoming Academy Awards again, but he turned it down, comparing it to asking “Nicole Brown Simpson to go back to the restaurant.”
A forgotten pair of Brown’s sunglasses led waiter Ron Goldman to bring them to the Brentwood, California home of O.J. Simpson‘s ex-wife — and the grisly 1994 murder of both of them.
Some took to Twitter to do a little smacking of their own of the comic. “#WillSmith should’ve slapped #ChrisRock even harder for the s*** he is spewing,” one Twitter user commented.
“Another woman serving as foils for #ChrisRock’s ‘jokes.’ Dear #WillSmith, all is forgiven,” opined another.
One tweeted a photo of Will slapping Rock with the caption, “This mf is tasteless classless and CORNY ASF and always has been #slap #ChrisRock #again.”
Another Twitter user offered, “Let’s get people to take turns slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars every year.”
Another fumed, “Can the academy suspend Chris Rock over his Nicole Brown Simpson remark?… I think I understand where Will Smith was coming from better.”
Smith was banned from all Motion Picture Academy events for 10 years because of the incident, for which he’s repeatedly apologized.
Despite sexual misconduct allegations against frontman Win Butler, Arcade Fire‘s tour continued Tuesday in Dublin, Ireland.
The show, which marked the “Wake Up” outfit’s first since Pitchfork first reported the allegations on Saturday, was opened by Feist. While Feist has not publicly commented on the situation, photos posted to social media by attendees of Tuesday concert show signs displayed on the “1234” artist’s merch booth saying that sales would be donated to Women’s Aid Dublin, which was confirmed by Billboard.
The allegations against Butler, which came from four people interviewed by Pitchfork, range from sending unwanted sexually explicit photos and demanding such photos and videos from women aged 18 to 23 when he was between 36 and 39 to sexual assault.
In a statement to Pitchfork, Butler acknowledged having relationships with all four accusers, which took place during his marriage to longtime partner and Arcade Fire bandmate Régine Chassagne, but describes each encounter as “mutual and always between consenting adults.”
“I have never touched a woman against her will, and any implication that I have is simply false,” he said.
Arcade Fire’s tour is scheduled to continue Wednesday with another show in Dublin. The outing is set to come to the U.S. in October, with opener Beck.
If you are affected by abuse and needing support, or know someone who is, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). You can also chat online at thehotline.org or online.rainn.org, respectively.
(NEW YORK) — New and updated COVID-19 booster shots were given an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration Wednesday morning, paving the way for shots in arms as soon as next week.
The booster shots were updated to target two different COVID strains in one shot — the current omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, which make up 99% of new cases in the U.S., and the original strain of COVID-19.
This is the first time current COVID-19 vaccines have had a major upgrade. In the future, experts expect the vaccines could be updated periodically to match current strains — akin to the way the flu shot is slightly different each year.
Public health officials directed the vaccine companies to create a bivalent vaccine — a vaccine that targets two different strains — in the hopes that the compilation will provide broader protection against COVID this fall and winter, as infections could rise with flu season, the cold weather and more time indoors.
Before the shots are able to be administered to the public, an independent panel of experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet on Thursday to review the data on the booster shots.
If the panel votes in favor of recommending the shots, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky could give the final sign-off within days and shots could be administered after the holiday weekend.
The U.S. government has purchased about 171 million shots, between contracts with Pfizer and Moderna.
Pfizer’s updated vaccine is authorized for people 12 and older, while Moderna’s shot is for people 18 and older. A review of the new boosters for children under 12 is expected soon.
“The COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters, continue to save countless lives and prevent the most serious outcomes (hospitalization and death) of COVID-19,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a press release on Wednesday morning.
“As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants,” he said.
Unlike the original vaccines and boosters, these new shots will not go through a lengthy clinical trial process where thousands of Americans are dosed with the vaccines to test their safety and long-term effectiveness. However, federal health officials stress that these new shots will still be just as safe as the original vaccines because the underlying vaccine platform, mRNA, is the same, and has been through many varying clinical trials.
“We have worked closely with the vaccine manufacturers to ensure the development of these updated boosters was done safely and efficiently. The FDA has extensive experience with strain changes for annual influenza vaccines. We are confident in the evidence supporting these authorizations,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.
“The public can be assured that a great deal of care has been taken by the FDA to ensure that these bivalent COVID-19 vaccines meet our rigorous safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality standards for emergency use authorization,” Marks added.
Part of that review was an evaluation of a clinical study of a different updated booster shot that vaccine companies had made during an earlier omicron wave. The clinical trial of that booster shot, which targeted the BA.1 variant and the original strain of COVID, was considered relevant enough to the bivalent vaccines targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages that the FDA found it to be enough to authorize.
Health experts say that the decision not to use time-consuming clinical trials for each new shot is also a strategic move, in an effort to keep vaccines up to date with the rapidly evolving variants — a process that will likely mimic how the flu vaccine is altered each year.
It’s unclear what the demand for new booster shots will be. Across the country, more than half of those eligible to be boosted have yet to do so, according to data from the CDC.
Although the immunity provided by COVID-19 vaccines continues to wane with time, data published by the CDC shows that COVID-19 booster doses are still offering protection against severe forms of disease and death, particularly among older Americans.
Among people ages 50 years and older, the unvaccinated had a risk of dying from COVID-19 that was 14 times higher than their fully vaccinated and double-boosted peers.
