FDA approves updated Covid vaccines

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved updated mRNA Covid-19 vaccines formulated to target widely circulating variants. The FDA made a statement regarding the approval of the updated Covid-19 vaccines for 2023-2024 produced by Moderna and Pfizer. It was announced in the statement that the new mRNA vaccines, which have been approved in order to better protect against the effects of Covid-19, have been authorized for emergency use. It was stated in the statement that the new vaccines are effective against the XBB.1.5 subvariant of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, and that people aged 5 and over, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated before, are eligible to receive a single dose of the updated mRNA Covid-19 vaccine after at least 2 months have passed since the last dose of any Covid-19 vaccine. The statement stated that people who receive the updated vaccine may experience side effects seen in older vaccines, and that these vaccines are expected to provide better protection against variants that are currently circulating. Pointing out that the composition of Covid-19 vaccines may need to be updated annually, like the seasonal flu vaccine, the statement emphasized that officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet tomorrow to discuss who should and should not get the vaccine. The new vaccines are expected to be available for use following the CDC’s approval. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Union’s (EU) health agency, reported that in the last two weeks of 2022, the rate of XBB.1.5 among coronaviruses in Europe was 2.5 percent, while in the US it was spreading 12 percent faster than existing variants. The XBB.1.5 sub-variant was first detected in the US in October 2022.