FDA advisers back updated COVID shots for fall vaccinations

FDA advisers recommend updating COVID-19 vaccines to target emerging omicron subvariants for fall vaccinations.

Key recommendation: The FDA panel suggests moving from a “bivalent” vaccine to a “monovalent” vaccine that only targets omicron subvariants.
* The current COVID shot targets both the original strain of the coronavirus and omicron subvariants dominant last winter.
* The new monovalent vaccine formulation aims to be more effective against the XBB strains.
* Majority of new infections in the U.S. are caused by the XBB.1.5 strain currently.

The reasoning: FDA scientists noted that data from vaccine manufacturers show the updated monovalent vaccine elicits stronger neutralizing antibody responses against XBB strains than current bivalent vaccines.
* This recommendation is in anticipation of a potential increase in cases this fall.

View original article on NPR

This summary was created by an AI system. The use of this summary is subject to our Terms of Service.

Contact us about this post

Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *