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Amid a summer wave of Covid-19 infections, the US Food and Drug Administration just approved updated mRNA vaccines that more strongly target coronavirus variants circulating lately.
The updated vaccines, from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, target an Omicron variant called KP. 2, one of the so-called FLiRT variants that are jointly to blame for the current Covid wave. The new vaccines will probably take a few weeks. to succeed in pharmacies and medical offices.
“Given the waning immunity of the population following prior exposure to the virus and prior vaccination, we strongly inspire those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated Covid-19 vaccine,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA Center. for Evaluation and Research of Biological Products, in a Thursday.
The new 2024-2025 formula aims to protect hospitalizations and deaths from Covid. In 2023, more than 916,300 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 and more than 75,500 people died from the virus in the United States. It also protects against long Covid, a chronic disease that lasts at least 3 months after an infection.
The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the new vaccine for anyone 6 months of age or older, whether or not they have received a COVID-19 vaccine in the past.
Like the flu virus, SARS-CoV-2 is constantly evolving. And in the same way that flu vaccines are updated every year to adapt to the evolution of the virus, Covid vaccines are also updated. Elizabeth Hudson, regional infectious disease lead for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, says SARS-CoV-2 is evolving faster than the flu virus, making it difficult to know which variants will be dominant when the vaccine comes out. “Variants are evolving faster than what we see with the flu,” he says.
The FDA’s green light comes after an advisory committee unanimously recommended in June that brands update Covid vaccines for this fall. Based on the evidence available at the time, FDA advisors first advised that new vaccines target a lineage called JN. 1, a branch of Omicron. But the company updated its guidelines and asked vaccine makers to focus on the KP. 2 strain, a descendant of the JN. 1 variant, to better adapt to circulating variants.
The latest edition of the Covid vaccine got the green light from the FDA on September 11, 2023. This formula targeted the XBB. 1. 5 variant, the main variant circulating in the United States in the first half of 2023. The virus has since mutated then, and the FLiRT variants circulating lately are thought to be more transmissible and evade the immune formula better than previous editions of the virus.
If you recently had a Covid-19 infection, the CDC says you may need to delay your vaccine dose for 3 months.
“Most of the time we recommend finishing getting vaccinated against Covid and flu by the end of September or October, to try to get other people through the winter months,” says Rosha McCoy, a pediatrician and senior director of fitness affairs for the Association. American medical schools. ” Certainly, if it’s a major threat or you’re going to be in a major threat situation, they may need to get it sooner. “
Typically, the largest surge of respiratory viruses occurs in winter. But Covid tends to peak in both winter and summer, and the current summer surge is likely due to the emergence of new variants and declining coverage from the previous vaccine.
“Any natural or vaccine immunity from 2023 onwards has bottomed out,” Hudson says. “It’s like the best typhoon for a more contagious form of Covid. “
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