US COVID-19 vaccines 'not well-matched' to dominant circulating variant: FDA
US vaccines are not suitable for new variants but could be improved with boosters.
-
FDA says COVID-19 vaccines in US 'not well-matched' to dominant circulating variant.
The COVID-19 vaccinations presently available in the United States are not well suited to combating the prevalent strain of the new coronavirus, but their efficiency can be increased with boosters, according to Doran Fink, Deputy Director-Clinical of the US Food and Drug Administration.
"While currently available vaccines are not well-matched to the dominant circulating variant (Omicron BA.2 sublineage), vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 and serious outcomes is improved by the use of booster doses," Fink told a Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting.
According to Fink, the effectiveness of existing COVID-19 shots is limited by decreased protection over time, notably against milder infections.
So far, coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna have received FDA approval.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, about 980,000 Americans have died as a result of COVID-19. Overall, COVID-19 instances appear to be decreasing, with fewer deaths and hospitalizations, while the implications of the BA.2 variant are causing concern among doctors, researchers, and others in the medical community.
To date, about 70% of Americans 5 and older have been fully vaccinated. Though older Americans lead the way with about 90% fully vaccinated of those 65 and over, about 41% of the more than 110 million people 50 and over are fully vaccinated but have not received their first booster, the CDC and US Census Bureau data indicate.
