With an eye toward enhancing protection against the coronavirus, which is still evolving and circulating, federal health advisers said Thursday that the next round of COVID-19 vaccines should be updated to target the now-dominant XBB strains.
The unanimous recommendation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee follows that of agency staff, who in a memo acknowledged that while older vaccine formulas can still help stave off severe disease, “protection wanes with time and is reduced against subsequent waves of variant viruses.”
Data suggest using the latest dominant coronavirus strain that more closely matches current circulating oomicron sublineages “is warranted for the 2023-2024 vaccination campaign,” FDA staff added.
