Opinion | Should Future COVID Boosters Include the Ancestral Strain?
The current COVID-19 mRNA vaccine boosters are bivalent, meaning they contain equal amounts of spike protein mRNA for the original Wuhan virus sequence and for the BA.4/5 Omicron variants that emerged in mid-2022. How well does this type of bivalent booster perform? The question is relevant because FDA’s recent Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory […]
CDC: Bivalent COVID Vaccines Stop Illness From XBB.1.5
Currently authorized bivalent COVID-19 boosters demonstrated similar protection against symptomatic illness from the XBB/XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariants as from BA.5-related subvariants, according to a CDC study. From December 2022 to January 2023, the bivalent boosters’ vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic infection was a similar 48% versus XBB/XBB.1.5-related strains and 52% versus BA.5-related sublineages, reported Ruth Link-Gelles, […]
CDC Panel Wary of ‘Booster Fatigue’ in COVID Vaccination Planning
Public health agencies need to define the purpose of COVID boosters, or risk the public falling victim to “booster fatigue,” the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) said on Wednesday. Agencies have been plagued by the lack of a clear voice in defining the exact purpose of the COVID vaccination strategy, and many ACIP […]