The omicron-specific COVID-19 booster may be available in a few weeks, assuming federal agencies sign off on the new shot, a top White House COVID-19 official said this week.
The booster has been widely expected for months, especially since the latest dominant omicron subvariant, BA.5, “looks really different in lots and lots of ways from the original strain that we built the vaccines against,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said this week in a forum with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“The good news is, our vaccines are still doing a remarkable job of keeping people out of the hospital, particularly out of the ICU and worse,” Jha said. “But the impact on these vaccines on preventing infection has declined over time because of this evolution” of the omicron strain.
