![]() There was a little ambiguity about which XBB subvariant to target the updated vaccines against. Regardless of the long-term seasonality, the advisers all agreed that, at least for now, a vaccine formula update is in order. Committee chair Arnold Monto, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Michigan, noted that garden-variety coronaviruses that cause common colds each year are "sharply seasonal." He said it was "premature" to suggest that SARS-CoV-2 would not fall into a seasonal pattern. Others, however, seemed more comfortable with the assumption. Some of the advisers on the committee-the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC)-once again gently pushed back on this plan, noting that they were not yet convinced that SARS-CoV-2 would be seasonal or has already become seasonal. The agency set a seemingly firm position of treating COVID-19 much like flu, with annual or biannual reviews of strain matches and updated vaccine formulas rolled out in the fall-barring a catastrophic variant that requires urgent, off-schedule responses. ![]() The FDA does not have to follow the advisory committee's recommendations, but it almost certainly will in this case. Since the last update to the bivalent shots, the virus has continuously evolved, coming up with new ways to try to evade immune responses built up from previous infections and vaccinations. To date, only 17 percent of Americans have received a bivalent booster, meaning their protection is significantly weakened since their last dose of the original vaccine formula, which only targeted the ancestral strain.įor the update, the advisers examined data suggesting that a monovalent vaccine, rather than a bivalent, would have a better shot at protecting against the latest omicron subvariants and reduce the chances of skewing immune responses back to the ancestral strain, which no longer circulates. In Thursday's day-long meeting, advisers reviewed data suggesting that the current bivalent vaccine continues to protect from the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, but protection from infection and hospitalization wanes over time and wanes notably faster against the XBB variants. This is a switch from the current formula, which is bivalent, targeting both the spike protein from the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain and the previous leading omicron subvariants BA.4/5 (which share a spike protein). The monovalent update means that the next COVID-19 vaccines will only target one version of pandemic coronaviruses. Such an update would apply to both primary series shots as well as boosters. ![]() Getty | Photonews reader comments 145 withĪn advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday voted unanimously (21 to 0) to recommend updating COVID-19 vaccines for the 2023-2024 period to be a monovalent formula targeting the latest omicron subvariant lineage of XBB.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |