Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease official in the U.S. That rapid shift in the makeup of the virus has been “a moving target” for health officials trying to direct vaccine policy, said Dr. Now, the BA.5 subvariant is dominant in the U.S., comprising nearly 90% of all cases. It has since mutated into a handful of different subvariants that, one by one, came to dominate the caseload.
The original omicron variant emerged in late 2021 and helped drive the massive wave of infections during last year’s holiday season. Moderna‘s bivalent booster - along with a similar one made by Pfizer and BioNTech - is more effective against the newer variants of the virus than the original vaccines are.īut these bivalent shots were designed around the original omicron variant, and as a result, they’re less effective against BA.4 and BA.5. was less effective against BA.5 - though it still “generate a good immune response” against that strain, researchers said.īritish regulators also found that the side effects of the bivalent vaccine were similar to that of the original Moderna vaccine – “typically mild and self-resolving” – and that there were no serious safety concerns. The Moderna shot approved Monday in the U.K. Here in the U.S., the FDA has asked vaccine developers to target the omicron subvariants known as BA.4 and BA.5 - the two strains that currently make up the vast majority of cases here - rather than focus on the original omicron variant, which swept across the country last winter. is a different shot than the omicron-specific booster that U.S. found that the Moderna-made omicron booster “triggers a strong immune response” against both the original 2020 strain of the coronavirus and the original omicron variant, which emerged late last year. June Raine, the head of the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said in a statement. “What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armory to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve,” Dr. is “bivalent,” meaning it’s a mix of two versions of the vaccine: Half is targeted at the original strain of COVID-19, and half is a new formulation designed to fight the original omicron variant, also known as BA.1. The United Kingdom has become the first country to approve vaccine boosters designed to target the omicron variant of COVID-19, paving the way for Brits to receive their shots in early fall.
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