https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/08/22/nx-s1-5082372/updated-covid-vaccines-fda-approvedThe Food and Drug Administration is expected to green light new COVID-19 vaccines any day now to help people protect themselves from the latest strains of the virus.
The new COVID vaccines are designed to keep the shots up to date with the virus, which keeps evolving to evade our immune systems.
“The new formulations cover the variants that have been circulating more recently,” Dr. Peter Marks, who runs the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, tells NPR. “So the hope is that the closer we match the strain, the better protection one will have, and perhaps the longer the protection we’ll have.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines expected to get the go-ahead this week target the KP.2 variant. The Novavax vaccine, which is based on an older technology, targets an earlier strain called JN.1.
An imperfect vaccine can still provide protection
Both target strains have already been overtaken by even newer variants, but they’re all still part of the omicron group. The hope is the vaccines are close enough to boost immunity and protect people through the rest of the surprisingly big summer wave and the surge expected this winter.
“The vaccine is not intended to be perfect. It’s not going to absolutely prevent COVID-19," Marks says. "But if we can prevent people from getting serious cases that end them up in emergency rooms, hospitals or worse — dead — that’s what we’re trying to do with these vaccines.”
The new vaccines should cut the risk of getting COVID by 60% to 70% and reduce the risk of getting seriously ill by 80% to 90%, Marks says. The shots are expected to become available as soon as this weekend to anyone age 6 months and older.
