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People at high risk of serious illness who have not yet gotten their second COVID-19 booster should not wait for the next generation of Omicron-targeted vaccines due in the fall, say five vaccine experts. told Reuters.
The BA.5 Omicron subvariant of the virus is surging in many countries, including the United States, but current vaccines continue to provide protection against hospitalization due to severe illness and death.
Also, as the virus evolves, it is unclear which version will be widely distributed in the fall, or whether the new vaccine (which will target BA.4/5 in the US and BA.1 in Europe) will be a good fit. is.
“If you need a booster, get it now,” said John Moore, Ph.D., professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical School, who co-authored an editorial on the subject under review. .
In the US, regulators have turned to Pfizer and partners BioNTech SE and Moderna to develop vaccine boosters that target not only the original virus, but both cousins of BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron. . They are expected to be ready by October.
Meanwhile, European regulators have indicated they are willing to use Omicron-based boosters as soon as they become available in Europe, which sparked a record surge in infections last winter in BA. May be intended for .1 variants.
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U.S. regulators hope the latest vaccine, which targets the original strain and Omicron variants, will offer broader protection against future variants, and the booster closest to the version in circulation. I think it’s worth it.
Given the current surge and people’s weakened immune systems, experts told Reuters the best boosters were on hand for those at risk.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 30% of people over the age of 50 who are eligible for a fourth dose have received one dose, compared with less than 10% of those aged 50-64. For those under 50 or without major risk factors, a fourth dose is not approved and has little support among the scientific community.
Moore said all the evidence he’s seen since then, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration meeting in June, is that the benefits of the BA.4/5 booster over the original vaccine are “negligible” in terms of infection control. said to have suggested
“The public should not see these Omicron-based boosters as some kind of magic bullet that will change the face of the pandemic and solve all problems. and have a small impact,” he said.
‘Too many people waiting’
Eric Topol, PhD, an expert in genomics and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, Calif. They say it has a survival advantage.
“Too many people are waiting for really good evidence,” he said.
Dr. Bob Wachter, medical director at the University of California, San Francisco, said there is growing evidence that the longer it has been since the last booster, the less protection you have against infection and serious illness. said.
“There’s a lot of COVID around and it’s a highly infectious agent,” he said.
BA.5 has sparked a wave of new cases worldwide and now accounts for nearly 82% of all coronavirus infections in the United States.
Wachter isn’t confident a modified BA.4/5 vaccine can be deployed within two months. “It seems a little ambitious to me. Even if we hit the schedule, we’ll probably be sent to the riskiest group first,” he said. I think he’s three or four months away.”
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Pfizer told Reuters it has manufactured millions of shots of the BA.4/5 vaccine.
As for the newly approved Novavax Inc vaccine, the company has yet to seek approval for use as a booster.
Moore, who participated in Novavax’s clinical trial, said it’s a good vaccine, but the company’s boosters are unlikely to be available anytime soon.Novax is developing BA.4/5 boosters and aims to be ready by the fourth quarter.
“Anything in the pipeline is months away,” Topol said. “This is a more virulent and virulent version of the virus, and it’s smart to be protected as much as possible.”