Government advisers say it’s time to update the recipe for the COVID-19 vaccines Americans will receive in the fall.
FILE - Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center nurse Maggie Bass, right, gives a COVID-19 vaccine to an unidentified person, Sept. 21, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. COVID-19 vaccines get updated each fall to match newer strains of the virus and government advisers on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, are urging that Americans' next shot target a strain called JN.1.
That made for a tough choice as the Food and Drug Administration decides the final recipe. FDA’s advisers voted Wednesday that the next vaccine should come from the JN.1 “lineage” or family. Then FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks challenged them to be more specific about exactly which variant to target, wondering if KP.2 was a better option.
But KP.2 isn't likely to still be the biggest threat by fall, the panel responded. Having to make the choice now, they preferred the parent JN.1 variant itself rather than trying to predict which of its descendants was most likely to increase in the coming months. Health officials have told Americans to expect a yearly update to COVID-19 vaccines, just like they get a new flu shot each fall designed to match as best as possible the currently spreading strains. Even though just about everyone has either been infected or had at least one round of COVID-19 vaccinations, the coronavirus keeps churning out new varieties that can dodge prior immunity -– and protection also wanes over time.
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