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Edgar Bronfman Jr. is open to having Shari Redstone stay involved at Paramount if the special committee accepts his consortium’s bid for a controlling stake.
Skydance’s David Ellison has also held conversations with Redstone about her future with the company.
One of the individuals who is part of Bronfman’s bid is former AOL CEO Jon Miller. Miller and Redstone run Advancit Capital, a small venture capital firm that invests in media and technology.

Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
Cameron Costa | CNBC

Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s offer for a controlling stake in Paramount Global could keep Shari Redstone close to the company, if his bid is successful.
Bronfman is open to having Redstone, currently non-executive chairman at Paramount, remain involved with the company if the Paramount special committee accepts his consortium’s bid for National Amusements, the controlling shareholder, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Bronfman has raised $6 billion to challenge Skydance Media for ownership of National Amusements, the holding company founded by Sumner Redstone, according to people familiar with the matter. Both Bronfman’s bid and Skydance’s bid would also include money to buy out a percentage of Paramount Global common shareholders.
At $6 billion, Bronfman’s bid would give cash to about 20% of Class B holders at $16 per share. Skydance would pay out about 50% of current Paramount common investors at $15 per share as part of its bid, according to the people familiar.
It’s not clear if Redstone prefers one offer over the other. The Paramount Global special committee will determine if Bronfman’s offer is a superior proposal for shareholders by Aug. 28. If the committee decides Bronfman’s offer is better, Skydance will then have four business days to match. The deadline for the entire process to be concluded is Sept. 5.
Bronfman still has a few more days to raise more money for a competing bid to counter Skydance, which agreed to an $8 billion deal to merge with Paramount Global last month. The special committee earlier this week extended the so-called “go-shop” period — during which it could entertain competing offers — by 15 days to review Bronfman’s initial bid.
One of the individuals who is part of Bronfman’s bid is former AOL CEO Jon Miller, suggesting Redstone could potentially have more control over a future Paramount Global than she’d get with Skydance. Miller, a close ally of Redstone, has been connecting Bronfman with potential capital and would likely take a role with the company if it came under Bronfman’s stewardship — perhaps a board seat and an operational job — according to people familiar with the matter. Bronfman would be CEO of the company if his deal were to be accepted and go through, said the people.

Miller, Redstone and Redstone’s son-in-law, Jason Ostheimer, together run Advancit Capital, a small venture capital firm that invests in media and technology. The trio are the only three people that appear on the firm’s website. Miller has also operated as a de facto strategic advisor to Redstone for many years, according to people familiar with the matter.
Redstone has not spoken with Miller about the bid, according to people familiar with the matter.
While the Redstone family and Bronfman family have run in similar circles, including donating heavily to Jewish foundations, Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Shari Redstone haven’t met many times and don’t have a close preexisting relationship, two of the people said.
Skydance CEO David Ellison and Redstone have had several discussions about the potential for Redstone to stay in as a shareholder of a combined Skydance-Paramount Global, according to people familiar with the matter.
Redstone is taking a wait-and-see approach to any future involvement she may want to have in Paramount Global moving forward regardless of its ownership, according to a person familiar with her thinking.
Spokespeople for Redstone, Bronfman, the Paramount Global special committee and Skydance all declined to comment.

11th hour bid

Bronfman has spent the last few weeks aggregating individuals with interest in owning a piece of Paramount Global, including film producer Steven Paul and Patron cofounder John Paul DeJoria, who had previously considered a bid of their own, according to a person familiar with the process, as well as Fortress Investment Group, the credit arm of private equity firm BC Partners, and former Turner Broadcasting CEO John Martin.
Bronfman’s financing comes from many different sources, which may potentially trigger regulatory concerns if too much of the money is from foreign entities. Having so many different financers may also make Bronfman’s offer riskier than Skydance’s bid, which is backed by private equity firm RedBird Capital and multibillionaire Larry Ellison, the father of David Ellison.
Bronfman is the chairman of Fubo, a sports streaming service, and the former head of Universal and Warner Music.
Skydance’s lawyers sent a letter to the Paramount Global special committee demanding the company stop negotiating with Bronfman, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Skydance said Paramount Global breached the terms of the go-shop agreement by not alerting Skydance that it planned to extend the window, the report said.
Skydance also argued the special committee didn’t have the right to extend the go-shop because a bid had to “reasonably be expected to lead to a superior proposal.” Skydance argued the Bronfman bid didn’t meet the criteria.
WATCH: Media power struggle: Paramount deal in jeopardy? More

The Biden administration will resume offering free at-home Covid tests to American households in late September amid a summer surge of the virus. 
Americans will soon be able to use COVIDtests.gov to request four free tests, administration officials told reporters.
The tests will be able to detect the currently circulating Covid variants, most of which are descendants of the highly contagious omicron variant JN.1. 

Images By Tang Ming Tung | DigitalVision | Getty Images

The Biden administration on Friday said it will resume offering free at-home Covid-19 tests to American households in late September as the virus has gained a stronger foothold in the U.S. this summer.
Americans will soon be able to use COVIDtests.gov to request four free tests, administration officials told reporters during a briefing. The tests will be able to detect the Covid variants that are currently circulating, most of which are descendants of the highly contagious omicron variant JN.1. 

“These tests will help keep families and their loved ones safe this fall and winter season,” Dawn O’Connell, an assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Health and Human Services Department, said during the briefing. “This is the seventh time over the last three years that the Biden-Harris administration has given families the opportunity to order the over-the-counter Covid-19 tests for free” through the government’s website.
The government’s program has provided more than 1.8 billion free over-the-counter Covid tests to Americans since it started in 2021, according to O’Connell.
The government is relaunching the program amid a relatively large spike in Covid cases this summer, and ahead of the fall and winter, when the virus typically spreads at higher levels each year. There is a “high” or “very high” level of Covid being detected in wastewater in almost every U.S. state, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
But the government decided to reopen the program in late September because it’s when more Americans begin to travel and gather indoors with loved ones. 

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“As people start to travel, as they start to get together with friends and family through the holidays, we want them to have those four tests available to them at that time,” David Boucher, director of infectious disease preparedness and response at HHS, told reporters during the briefing.

By then, the latest round of Covid shots from Pfizer and Moderna will be available to most Americans in pharmacies, health clinics and other locations nationwide. The Food and Drug Administration approved those shots, which target a JN.1 offshoot called KP.2, on Thursday.
Testing is a critical tool for protection as Covid infections climb again. But lab PCR tests — the traditional method of detecting Covid — have become more expensive and less accessible for some Americans since the U.S. government ended the public health emergency in May last year. 
Still, certain local health clinics and community sites offer at-home tests to the public at no cost. 

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Delta said COO Mike Spanos would leave at the end of the month for another job.
Spanos started at Delta as operations chief in May 2023 after holding leadership roles at Six Flags and Pepsi.
His departure comes weeks after Delta’s meltdown in the wake of a massive CrowdStrike outage, though CEO Ed Bastian said Spanos told him earlier in the summer that he was considering other opportunities outside of the airline.

Delta Air Lines planes sit parked at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta on June 28, 2024.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images

Delta Air Lines’ chief operating officer is leaving at the end of the month, the company said in a securities filing Friday.
CEO Ed Bastian said in an employee memo that Chief Operating Officer Mike Spanos is taking a job at another company.

His departure, after just over a year on the job, comes weeks after Delta suffered a meltdown in the wake of the massive CrowdStrike outage in July. Delta estimates those disruptions cost the airline some $500 million and said it will seek compensation from CrowdStrike and Microsoft.

Read more CNBC airline news

However, Bastian said in the memo Friday that Spanos told him earlier in the summer that he was “considering opportunities outside of Delta.”
Delta doesn’t plan to replace Spanos, Bastian said. Instead, John Laughter, chief of operations and president of Delta’s TechOps maintenance and overhaul unit, and Allison Ausband, chief customer experience officer, will report to Bastian.
Spanos joined Delta in May 2023 and previously held the role of CEO at Six Flags Entertainment and executive positions at PepsiCo.

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Ford Motor believes prioritizing smaller vehicles will help the company on its path to EV profitability.
The automaker wants to expand its growingly popular hybrid models and create more affordable electric vehicles that it believes will better compete against Chinese competitors.
But its shift in focus — which involves canceling a large, three-row electric SUV and other changes — will cost the Detroit automaker up to $1.9 billion in expenses and write-downs.

A banner advertises the Ford Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle at a Ford dealership on August 21, 2024 in Glendale, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images

DETROIT – Ford Motor’s profit engine for decades has been large trucks and SUVs in the U.S. So it might surprise investors that the automaker believes its new path to profitability for electric vehicles will first be led by smaller, more affordable vehicles.
The new plan is an “insurance policy” for the automaker to be able to expand its growingly popular hybrid models and create more affordable EVs that it believes will deliver a more capital-efficient, profitable electric vehicle business for the company and investors, according to Marin Gjaja, Ford’s chief operating officer for its Model e EV unit.

“We’re quite convinced that the highest adoption rates for electric vehicles will be in the affordable segment on the lower size-end of the range,” he told CNBC on Thursday. “We have to play there in order to compete with the entrants that are coming.”
Those expected newcomers are largely Chinese automakers, such as Warren Buffett-backed BYD, that have been rapidly growing from their home market to Europe and other countries.
Gjaja’s comments come a day after the automaker announced updates to its EV strategy that will cost up to $1.9 billion. That includes about $400 million for the write-down of manufacturing assets, as well as additional expenses and cash expenditures of up to $1.5 billion.

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Ford, Tesla and GM stocks

Ford’s new plans for North America include canceling a large, electric three-row SUV that was already far in development, delaying production of its next-generation “T3” electric full-size pickup truck by about 18 months until late 2027, and refocusing battery production and sourcing to the U.S.
Instead of the three-row SUV or large pickup, the company’s first new EV is expected to be a commercial van in 2026, followed the next year by a midsized pickup and then the T3 full-size pickup.

Gjaja said the decision wasn’t taken lightly, especially the cancellation of the upcoming three-row vehicle, which Ford CEO Jim Farley and other executives had been touting as a game-changer for several years.
The commercial van comes as Ford’s “Pro” commercial vehicle and fleet business, which includes vans and large Super Duty trucks, has been a standout for the company and offset billions of dollars in EV losses.
And the midsize pickup is scheduled to be the first vehicle from a specialized “skunkworks” team in California, The company had tasked the team two years ago with developing a new small EV platform.
“We believe smaller, more affordable vehicles are the way to go for EV in volume. Why? Because the math is completely different than [internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles],” Farley told investors last month. “In ICE, a business we’ve been in for 120 years, the bigger the vehicle, the higher the margin. But it’s exactly the opposite for EVs.”
Farley has said the weight and cost of battery packs needed for large vehicles such as a three-row SUV, which many families buy for road trips, towing and hauling, are a limitation for EVs due to current ranges and charging networks.

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Ford’s current EVs — the Mustang Mach-E crossover, F-150 Lightning and a commercial van in the U.S. – are not profitable overall. The Model e operations have lost nearly $2.5 billion during the first half of this year and lost $4.7 billion in 2023.
The losses, as well as changing market conditions and business plans, caused Ford earlier this year to withdraw an ambitious 8% profit margin for its EV unit by 2026.
Investors and Wall Street analysts have largely supported the EV changes, most recently sending shares up about 2.3% since the announcement earlier this week, despite the expected costs.
“Overall, these changes will position Ford to benefit from growing demand for EVs, while also focusing on areas in which it has a Core competitive advantage,” BofA’s John Murphy wrote Wednesday in an investor note. “Given the size of the charge, this is clearly a tough decision in the short-term, but we think makes sense in the medium to long-term given what will likely be subpar economics in the three-row CUV/SUV segment.”

More hybrids, less EVs

The updates are the latest for Ford’s electrification plans, which now include a heavy focus on hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, to assist in meeting tightening fuel economy regulations in addition to all-electric vehicles.
Ford CFO John Lawler said Wednesday the company’s future capital expenditure plans will shift from spending about 40% on all-electric vehicles to spending 30%. He did not give a timeline for the change, but it’s a massive swing from when the company announced plans in 2021 to spend more than $30 billion on EVs through 2025.
The hybrid plans include offering such options across its entire North American lineup by 2030, including three-row SUVs, to assist in meeting tightening emissions and fuel economy requirements. Lawler said that to improve profitability, Ford is also accelerating the mix of battery production in the U.S. that will qualify for tax incentives and credits.

A Ford F-150 Lariat PowerBoost hybrid pickup truck is displayed for sale at a Ford dealership on August 21, 2024 in Glendale, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images

The shift in Ford’s plans is consistent with the overall auto industry, which is facing growing, but slower-than-expected adoption of EVs, as well as automakers not being able to achieve expected profitability on the vehicles.
“What we saw in ’21 and ’22 was a temporary market spike where the demand for EVs really took off,” Gjaja told CNBC during an interview earlier this year. “It’s still growing but not nearly at the rate we thought it might have in ’21, ’22.”
There’s also an industry-wide fear that Chinese automakers could be able to flood markets with cheaper, more profitable EVs. Chinese automakers such as Warren Buffett-backed BYD are quickly growing exports of vehicles to Europe and other countries.
Lawler pushed back Wednesday on the idea that the Chinese have out-gunned American automakers. He said the Ford, in part, developed the “skunkworks” team to prove that Ford can compete against the Chinese automakers.
“As we’ve watched in the last 18 to 24 months, the emergence of incredible products and formidable competitors in China has really been, I think, the story for us,” Gjaja said. “And so now, when we look at the competitive landscape, we have to chin ourselves against the most competitive companies in China.”

Ford vs. GM

Ford’s new plans are polar opposite of its closest rival, General Motors.
America’s largest automaker has pulled back spending and delayed many of its EVs, but it has several large all-electric vehicles on sale on coming soon.
GM was among the first to go “all-in” on EVs, including by creating a vertically integrated, dedicated electric vehicle platform and supporting technologies such as batteries and motors.

2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Aside from Tesla, GM was the first automaker to begin U.S. battery cell manufacturing through a joint venture at scale, which the company has continued to tout as a cost advantage
GM’s current lineup includes three all-electric large pickup trucks, a Hummer SUV, two recently launched Chevrolet crossovers and a luxury Cadillac crossover and $300,000 Celestiq car. Several more crossover models and an all-electric Escalade SUV are expected to join the lineup this year as well.
As recently as last month, GM reconfirmed expectations for its EVs to be profitable on a production, or contribution-margin basis, once it reaches output of 200,000 units by the fourth quarter.
A GM spokesman Thursday said the automaker continues “to work to reach variable profit positive during the fourth quarter.”
Gjaja declined to comment on GM’s target or operations but said Ford is doing what’s best for the company.
“We’re focusing on what we think are the right technologies to serve our customers that can also be affordable for them and profitable for us,” he said. More

Of the 1,143 cars up for sale at Monterey Car Week, only 821 sold — marking a 72% sell-through rate, according to classic-car insurance company Hagerty.
The average sale price was $476,965, down slightly from last year’s average of $477,866.
That’s in part because a new generation of collectors is driving the market — mainly Gen Xers and millennials — who prefer cars from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Auction sales during Monterey Car Week fell 3% from last year, as a shift from older to newer cars left a pileup of unsold classics from the 1950s and 1960s.

Total sales at this year’s five car auctioneers in Monterey — RM Sotheby’s, Broad Arrow, Gooding & Company, Mecum and Bonhams — fell to $391.6 million this year from $403 million in 2023, according to Hagerty, the classic-car insurance company. That followed a decline of 14% last year compared with the peak of 2022.
Of the 1,143 cars up for sale, only 821 sold — marking a 72% sell-through rate, according to Hagerty. The average sale price was $476,965, down slightly from last year’s average of $477,866.

Experts say wealthy collectors still have plenty of money to spend and are feeling confident given the recent rise in the stock market, but the types of cars they want are changing. There were simply too many similar cars at too many auctions to generate strong prices and sales.
“It’s saturation,” said Simon Kidston, the founder of Kidston and a leading advisor to wealthy car collectors. “When I walked around the auctions and saw so much similar ‘product,’ I asked myself if any of them had thought about what they or their rivals already had consigned, and if the cars were vying for the same buyers. Add to that the fact that many entries had already been in dealer windows for months or years which always feels like sloppy seconds.”
At the same time, a new generation of collectors driving the market — mainly Gen Xers and millennials — prefer cars from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The 1950s and 1960s classic cars that powered the market for decades and are popular with baby boomers are pouring onto the market and failing to find buyers.

The sell-through rate in Monterey (or the percentage of cars that actually sold on the auction block) was an anemic 52% for pre-1981 cars priced at $1 million or more, according to Hagerty. The sell-through rate for cars less than 4 years old was a much stronger 73% — proving that young collectors are now in the driver’s seat.
Hagerty’s Supercar Index of sports cars from the 1980s through the 2000s is up over 60% from 2019, while the Blue Chip Index of 1950s and 1960s Corvettes, Ferraris, Jaguars and other storied classics is down 3%.

The 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider
Credit: Gooding & Company

Granted, a small number of rare, true masterpieces will still fetch high prices. The top car of the week was a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider that sold at RM Sotheby’s for $17 million and the runner-up was a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider that’s one of only five in existence.
Yet the broader changing of the guard in classic cars, especially as many older collectors start selling off or downsizing their collections, is likely to weigh on prices for older cars for years.

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“From an auction perspective, the market continues to take a breath while we transition from what was hot, think Enzo-era Ferraris, the so-called full classics as well as ’50s and ’60s sports racers, to the ascendant modern supercar class,” said McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty. “The divergence between older and newer cars has accelerated.”
Some say high interest rates are also putting pressure on the classic-car market. At the lower end of the market, many buyers had been using financing to buy cars and build their collections. At the high end, rising rates raised the opportunity cost of buying a classic car.
“People think, ‘Instead of that million-dollar car, I could be earning 5% maybe 10%’ if you’ve got a great manager,” Kidston said. “That, more than anything else, makes people think twice. A collector car is partially investment. There’s no other single reason for the increase in the value of collector cars over the last 40 years than the investment angle.”

Here are the top 10 most expensive cars sold during Monterey Car Week

1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider – $17,055,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider – $14,030,000 (Gooding & Company)  
1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider – $12,985,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
1969 Ford GT40 Lightweight – $7,865,000 (Mecum)
1997 Porsche 911 GT1 Rennversion Coupe – $7,045,000 (Broad Arrow Auctions) 
1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider – $5,615,000 (RM Sotheby’s) 
1995 Ferrari F50 Coupe – $5,505,000 (RM Sotheby’s) 
1955 Ferrari 857 S Spider – $5,350,000 (Gooding & Company)  
1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Alloy Coupe – $5,285,000 (RM Sotheby’s)  
1958 Ferrari 250 GT TdF Coupe – $5,200,000 (Gooding & Company)  More

Cava beat Wall Street’s estimates for its quarterly earnings and revenue.
The Mediterranean restaurant chain said its fiscal second-quarter traffic climbed 9.5%, bucking industry trends.
The company also raised its full-year forecast.

Customers arrive at a Cava restaurant in New York City on June 22, 2023.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters

Cava on Thursday raised its full-year outlook as its restaurants reported strong traffic, fueling better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue.
Shares of the company rose 9% in extended trading. The stock has more than doubled its value this year, bringing Cava’s market cap up to about $11.6 billion, as of Thursday’s close.

Here is what the company reported for the quarter that ended July 14 compared to what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 17 cents vs. 13 cents expected
Revenue: $233 million vs. $220 million expected

The Mediterranean restaurant chain reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $19.7 million, or 17 cents per share, up from $6.5 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier.
Net sales climbed 35% to $233 million. The company’s same-store sales rose 14.4%, topping StreetAccount estimates of 7.9%.
While many other restaurant companies have reported declines in visits as consumers pull back their spending, Cava said its traffic grew 9.5% in the quarter. Cava CEO and co-founder Brett Schulman credited the chain’s new grilled steak option as one reason customers kept coming to its restaurants during the quarter.
Cava opened 18 net new locations during the quarter, bringing its total footprint up to 341 restaurants.

For fiscal 2024, Cava now expects same-store sales growth of 8.5% to 9.5%, up from its prior range of 4.5% to 6.5%. The company is also projecting that it will open 54 to 57 new locations this year, up from its previous forecast of 50 to 54 restaurants.
Cava also expects to report adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $109 million to $114 million. Previously, it was projecting adjusted EBITDA of $100 million to $105 million for the fiscal year.

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Walmart on Thursday announced a new partnership with fast-food chain Burger King that will offer members of its Walmart+ subscription program 25% off any Burger King order made through the BK app.
Walmart positioned the added benefits as cost savings for its members.
It comes at a time when cost-conscious diners increasingly hunt for value.
Walmart+ costs $12.95 per month, or $98 annually, and includes free shipping and delivery on Walmart orders.

A Burger King Whopper hamburger is displayed in San Anselmo, California, on April 5, 2022.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Walmart members are in for a whopper of a deal.
The retailer on Thursday announced a new partnership with fast-food chain Burger King that will offer members of its Walmart+ subscription program 25% off any Burger King order made through the BK app. Members will also be eligible for a free flame-grilled Whopper every three months starting in September with a purchase, according to a news release.

Walmart positioned the added benefits as cost savings for its members. It comes at a time when cost-conscious diners increasingly hunt for value.
“We’re confident our members will welcome the additional savings, and we’re thrilled to collaborate with a trusted brand like Burger King to offer this benefit,” Venessa Yates, senior vice president and general manager, said in a statement.
Walmart+ costs $12.95 per month, or $98 annually, and includes free shipping and delivery on Walmart orders. In 2022, Walmart struck a streaming deal with Paramount Global to offer Walmart+ members free access to an ad-supported plan on Paramount+.
“We’re thrilled to join the Walmart+ program as its first ever dining partner and look forward to providing members of Walmart+ even more savings on their flame-grilled favorites at Burger King,” said Pat O’Toole, chief marketing officer for Burger King North America, in a statement.

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The Food and Drug Administration approved updated Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, putting the shots on track to reach most Americans in the coming days as the virus surges.
The jabs target a strain called KP.2, a descendant of the highly contagious omicron subvariant JN.1 that began circulating widely in the U.S. earlier this year.
The CDC recommended that everyone over 6 months old receive an updated Covid vaccine this year.

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Courtesy: Pfizer

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved updated Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, putting the new shots on track to reach most Americans in the coming days amid a summer surge of the virus. 
The jabs target a strain called KP.2, a descendant of the highly contagious omicron subvariant JN.1 that began circulating widely in the U.S. earlier this year. KP.2 was the dominant Covid strain in May, but now only accounts for roughly 3% of all U.S. cases as of Saturday, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Still, Pfizer and Moderna have said their KP.2 vaccines can produce stronger immune responses against other circulating subvariants of JN.1, such as KP.3 and LB.1, than last year’s round of shots targeting the omicron strain XBB.1.5 can.
“Given waning immunity of the population from previous exposure to the virus and from prior vaccination, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.
In June, the CDC recommended that everyone over 6 months old receive an updated Covid vaccine and flu jab this year. The new shots from Pfizer and Moderna are specifically approved for people ages 12 and older and are authorized under emergency use for children 6 months through 11 years old.  
Pfizer will begin shipping its new shot immediately and expects it to be available in pharmacies, hospitals and clinics across the U.S. “beginning in the coming days,” the company said in a statement. Moderna also expects its shot to be available in a similar time frame, according to a statement.
“Staying up to date with your COVID-19 vaccine remains one of the best ways for people to be protected and prevent severe illness,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. “We appreciate the U.S. FDA’s timely review and encourage individuals to speak to their healthcare providers about receiving their updated COVID-19 vaccine alongside their flu shot this fall.”

Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine mRNA 2024-2025 formula.
Courtesy: Moderna

The FDA’s approval comes a few weeks ahead of last year’s round of shots, which the agency cleared on Sept. 11.
The earlier arrival of updated vaccines could offer some reassurance to Americans as the nation sees a relatively large spike in the virus this summer. A “high” or “very high” level of Covid is being detected in wastewater in almost every state, according to CDC data. Wastewater monitoring provides a glimpse of how widespread the virus is in the U.S. as other forms of testing have fallen off.
Other measures of the virus are rising but remain far below where they were at the peak of the pandemic. Covid test positivity rates rose to 18.3% for the week ended Aug. 10, from 17.9% the week before, according to the CDC.
Meanwhile, the CDC said about four people are being hospitalized for Covid for every 100,000 people in a given area. That’s up from about one Covid hospitalization for every 100,000 people in May, which was the lowest level since the pandemic began. 
The summer Covid wave may decline by the time the shots reach patients’ arms and kick in an immune response against the virus, which typically takes two weeks after vaccination. 
Still, federal health officials have long told Americans to expect annual updates to Covid shots as the virus churns out new strains that can dodge the immunity people have from previous vaccinations or infections — protection that wanes over time. It’s similar to how the U.S. rolls out new flu vaccines every year. 
It’s unclear how many Americans will actually roll up their sleeves to get another shot in the coming months.
Only around 22.5% of U.S. adults received the latest round of shots that came out last fall, according to CDC data through early May. 

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Many Americans who got previous rounds of Covid shots cited a lack of worry about the virus as a reason they didn’t get the latest booster, according to a November survey from health policy research organization KFF. Others said they had been too busy to get their shot, the survey said.
In June, the FDA asked vaccine makers to manufacture shots against JN.1 before telling them to target KP.2 instead “if feasible.”
That shift appeared to put Novavax, which filed for authorization of a new JN.1 shot that same month, at a disadvantage. The FDA has not cleared the biotech company’s jab. 
In a statement, Novavax said it is working “productively” with the FDA as the agency completes its review. Novavax expects its shot to receive authorization in time for peak vaccination season in the U.S.
The company noted that its shot provides protection against descendants of JN.1, including KP.2.3, KP.3, KP.3.1.1 and LB.1.
Novavax manufactures protein-based vaccines, which cannot be quickly updated to target another strain of the virus. Protein-based technology is a decades-old method used in routine vaccinations against hepatitis B and shingles. 
Meanwhile, Pfizer’s and Moderna’s shots use messenger RNA technology, which teaches cells how to make proteins that trigger an immune response against Covid. The mRNA vaccines are much easier to develop and update than protein shots. 

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