(LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for the updated Novavax COVID-19 jab in individuals 12 years old and older.
Those who have previously received a COVID shot are approved to receive one dose, and the unvaccinated may take two, according to the authorization. The FDA claims that the updated jab “addresses currently circulating variants.”
The Novavax shot relies on a novel nanoparticulate adjuvant called Matrix-M, as opposed to the mRNA basis of Pfizer and Moderna’s jabs, and features moth-cell-based nanoparticle technology and polysorbate 80.
Relatively early into the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, which were developed and reviewed in a fraction of the time vaccines usually take under former President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed initiative, some critics of those shots expressed cautious optimism about the potential of Novavax as a safer, more effective, and more ethical alternative to Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson’s shots, which have performed far less effectively than promised, been linked to multiple serious health issues, and present moral challenges, given the use of cells from aborted babies in their development and/or testing.
However, Novavax also presents cause for concern. Last year, a global study of more than 39,000 recipients of several COVID vaccines, including Novavax, found 56% of female participants experienced changes to their menstrual cycles, and Sweden’s Public Health Authority recommended against those younger than 30 taking the shot due to concern that, like its mRNA counterparts, it could cause increased risk for myocarditis. And the federal government’s consistent disinterest in fully investigating concerns with the previous vaccines, even while attempting to mandate them on the general public, raises severe doubts as to the rigor of its Novavax vetting.
Further, according to a detailed overview of all the vaccine candidates by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, while abortion-tainted cells were not used to create the Novavax shots, but were used in some of their laboratory testing.
On October 11, cardiologist and prominent COVID establishment critic Dr. Peter McCullough wrote that Novavax’s effectiveness remains “unacceptably low” in light of a study of 20,903 recipients that reported effectiveness against “notified SARS-CoV infections in those with partial vaccination … was 23% … increasing after full vaccination to 31%,” while effectiveness against symptomatic infection was 31% for partial vaccination and 50% for the fully-vaccinated.
“If a vaccine cannot safely provide at least 50% protection for a year, it is not viable in my clinical practice. Sadly Novavax failed at both of these outcomes,” McCullough wrote. “With low-risk Omicron, and likely substantial natural immunity by Fall of 2022, only 26 infections led to hospitalization during the study period; 1 occurred during the reference period, 7 during partial vaccination, and 18 after full vaccination. No deaths were reported.”
By contrast, more than 160 studies have found that natural immunity from prior COVID infection is “equal to or more robust and superior to existing vaccines,” according to the Brownstone Institute, a nonprofit organized in response to establishment COVID lockdown policies.
Novavax has received more than $90 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for vaccine development and was awarded nearly $400 million by the Gates-founded Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation to develop and manufacture its COVID-19 shot.
In recent months, some schools, hospitals, and businesses have resumed mask mandates, citing rising cases from new COVID variants against which the government admits current vaccines may be ineffective. The news has prompted speculation as to whether a return to broader lockdowns is forthcoming.
President Joe Biden has announced he is seeking funding from Congress to develop new COVID vaccines for these variants, prompting fears of new mandates, similarly rushed development, and whether they would have similar problems as the shots developed under his predecessor.