COVID shots should target XBB variants in 2023-24 campaign, US FDA staff say

Reuters - Reuters - 12/06
COVID-19 vaccines being developed and manufactured for the 2023-2024 campaign should target one of the currently dominant XBB variants, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) staff reviewers said on Monday.
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June 12 (Reuters) - COVID-19 vaccines being developed and manufactured for the 2023-2024 campaign should target one of the currently dominant XBB variants, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) staff reviewers said on Monday.

The comments were made in documents posted ahead of Thursday's meeting of a panel of FDA's independent experts, who are expected to make recommendations on what strain an updated COVID-19 booster should target.

An advisory group to the World Health Organization (WHO) in May recommended that COVID-19 booster shots for the year should be updated to target XBB subvariants.

Last year's COVID vaccine boosters in the United States featured both the original strain of the vaccine and Omicron in a so-called bivalent shot.

About 17% of people in the United States received a COVID booster shot in the 2022-2023 vaccination season, according to CDC data that was current through early May.

COVID-related deaths in the United States sp...
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