Vaccines to protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in newborns and older adults are being more widely accepted by the American public, while confidence in other vaccines remains unchanged, according to the results of a new Annenberg Public Policy Center survey.

The survey, led by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and other researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, included a nationally representative sample of 1,771 U.S. adults and was conducted from Nov. 14 to 24, 2024.

More than half of U.S. adults (52 percent) think the vaccine given to pregnant individuals to protect infants from RSV is effective, up from 42 percent in October 2023, while 61 percent say the RSV vaccine is effective for adults aged 60 years and older, up from 54 percent in October 2023. In contrast, 86 percent of respondents say the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine is safe, up from 81 percent in October 2023 and similar to August 2022 (88 percent), and 83 percent say the flu vaccine is safe, unchanged from October 2023. Less than two-thirds of respondents (65 percent) say the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, unchanged from 2023. Respondents view the seasonal flu shot as more effective at reducing the risk for getting a severe illness (75 percent) compared with the COVID-19 booster for reducing the risk for getting a severe case of the disease (55 percent). Despite belief in safety and effectiveness, only 51 percent of respondents either received the seasonal flu shot (40 percent) or say they are very likely to receive it (11 percent) or the COVID-19 booster (38 percent received it and 9 percent are very likely to).

"Despite continuing attacks on the safety and efficacy of certain vaccines by some politicians, nine in 10 respondents say it is important for parents to get their children vaccinated," according to the authors of the report.

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THURSDAY, Jan. 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Bivalent vaccines seem to provide additional protection against symptomatic BA.5 and XBB/XBB.1.5 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) omicron sublineages, according to research published in the Jan. 27 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Ruth Link-Gelles, Ph.D., from the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed data from the Increasing Community Access to Testing national pharmacy program for SARS-CoV-2 testing to estimate the vaccine effectiveness of updated (bivalent) mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against symptomatic infection caused by BA.5-related and XBB/XBB.1.5-related sublineages among adults during Dec. 1, 2022, to Jan. 13, 2023. A total of 29,175 nucleic acid amplification tests were included from adults who had previously received two to four monovalent COVID-19 vaccine doses.

The researchers found that for adults aged 18 to 49 years, the relative vaccine effectiveness of a bivalent booster given two to three months earlier was 52 and 48 percent against symptomatic BA.5 infection and against symptomatic XBB/XBB.1.5 infection, respectively, compared with no bivalent booster.

"All persons should stay up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccines, including receiving a bivalent booster dose when eligible," the authors write.

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TUESDAY, May 30, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States fell below 9,000 in the past week, the first time that milestone has been reached since tracking began in the summer of 2020. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that hospitalizations were at 8,256 as of May 25.

Hospitalizations are among the few COVID-19 metrics still being monitored by public health officials, which will continue until April 2024. Still, some infections may no longer be counted because of changes to how hospitals are testing, CBS News reported.

The CDC is still expected to recommend wearing masks when an area's hospitalizations are high. New boosters could be recommended later this year. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet this summer to consider booster recommendations.

World Health Organization advisers have recommended updated COVID-19 boosters targeted to spreading XBB strains. Current boosters target an earlier virus and omicron variants.

Late spring has been a time of record low hospitalizations for each of the past few years. Case numbers previously reached low levels in May and June 2021, for example, but then surged in August of that year because of the delta variant. At that point, hospitalizations were at more than 85,000 in the highest week, CBS News reported. In 2022, something similar happened with record lows in April, following a wintertime omicron surge with 150,000 weekly new hospital admissions.

What will happen this year is not known, but there are again new and shifting variants, from XBB.1.5 strains that are descending in numbers of cases to XBB.1.16 variants that now comprise 19 percent of infections, according to the latest CDC data.

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FRIDAY, Feb. 23, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Maternal booster COVID-19 vaccination protects infants from infection in the first six months of life, according to a study published online Feb. 9 in Pediatrics.

Cristina V. Cardemil, M.D., M.P.H., from the National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Maryland, and colleagues quantified protection against infection from maternally derived vaccine-induced antibodies in the first six months of an infant's life. Full-length spike (Spike) immunoglobulin G (IgG), pseudovirus 614D, and live virus D614G and omicron BA.1 and BA.5 neutralizing antibody (nAb) titers were measured at delivery among infants born to mothers vaccinated during pregnancy with two or three doses of a messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine.

The researchers found that Spike IgG, pseudovirus, and live nAb titers were significantly higher at delivery for 204 infants of boosted mothers than for 271 infants of nonboosted mothers; infants of boosted mothers were 56 percent less likely to acquire infection in the first six months. The infant's risk for acquiring infection was reduced by 47 percent for each 10-fold increase in Spike IgG titer at delivery, irrespective of boost. Risk reductions of 30, 46, 56, and 60 percent were seen in association with 10-fold increases in pseudovirus titers against Wuhan Spike, live virus nAb titers against D614G, and omicron BA.1 and BA.5 at delivery, respectively.

"We show that a monovalent booster dose during pregnancy leads to higher binding and nAb titers at delivery that are effective against omicron, for an age group that has the highest COVID-19-associated hospitalization rate in pediatrics since the emergence and ubiquitous spread of omicron variants," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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Whooping cough cases are climbing at the fastest pace in years as students across America return to school, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

In figures published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 291 cases were reported for the week ending Sept. 14. New York logged the most cases of any state, with 44 infections. Oklahoma followed closely behind with 40 cases, while Ohio has reported 39 illnesses and Pennsylvania has reported 38 infections.

Not since 2015 have numbers that high been reported for Bordatella pertussis infections, when the United States was coming off a resurgence of whooping cough cases that peaked the year before, the data showed.

So far this year, 14,569 cases have been reported, more than four times higher than the number of infections reported by this time last year, the CDC reported.

U.S. health officials have warned for months about a resurgence in breakthrough infections in older children and adults, even though unvaccinated young children and newborns of unvaccinated moms remain the most vulnerable to both infection and severe disease, CBS News reported.

Why are there so many breakthrough infections?

For the past few decades, whooping cough cases have continued to climb because the United States switched to pertussis vaccines that have fewer side effects but aren't as powerful or long-lasting as older shots, CBS News reported.

In Pennsylvania, which has witnessed one of the country's largest pertussis outbreaks this year, health officials noted that high school students have fueled that surge in cases.

"Historically, pertussis was primarily considered a childhood infection; however, there has been an increasing awareness of cases and hospitalizations occurring in older adults," the Pennsylvania Department of Health said in an health alert. "This is likely due to a multitude of factors, including waning vaccine protection and the lack of timely recognition and testing by adult providers leading to more severe infections, co-infections and hospitalizations in older adults."

A similar scenario has unfolded in New York, where 40% of cases outside of New York City have been in teens ages 15 to 19, CBS News reported.

In Oklahoma, which has seen one of the biggest jumps in cases of any state in recent weeks, cases have been seen in people as old as 86, the Oklahoma State Department of Health told CBS News.

The resurgence arrives as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is weighing speeding up the development of more effective pertussis shots: An FDA advisory panel plans to meet Friday to discuss potential pertussis booster vaccine trials for adults.

The CDC already recommends a number of pertussis shots for children and adults, including boosters of the Tdap vaccine -- which contains antigens designed to protect against pertussis -- for all adults every 10 years.

While whooping cough cases are clearly on the rise, health officials noted that it is not time to panic.

"Despite the resurgence of pertussis, current rates of disease are very low relative to the rates reported during the pre-vaccine era," FDA officials wrote in briefing documents prepared for the advisory panel.

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SOURCES: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, news release, Sept. 19, 2024; CBS News

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MONDAY, Jan. 30, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For adults with two or more chronic conditions, booster vaccination with BNT162b2 or CoronaVac is associated with reductions in COVID-19-related mortality compared with two doses, according to a study published online Jan. 30 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.

Francisco Tsz Tsun Lai, Ph.D., from the University of Hong Kong, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study comparing death related to COVID-19 among people aged 18 years or older with two or more chronic conditions who received a homologous booster (third) dose versus those receiving only two doses between Nov. 11, 2021, and March 31, 2022. Data were included for 120,724 BNT162b2 recipients (87,289 received a booster) and 127,318 CoronaVac recipients (94,977 received a booster).

The researchers found that among BNT162b2 recipients, there were fewer COVID-19-related deaths among those who had received a booster versus those who had received two doses (five versus 34; incidence rate, 1.3 versus 23.4 per million person-days; weighted incidence rate ratio, 0.05). Similar results were observed among those who had received CoronaVac booster vaccination versus those who had received two doses (26 versus 88; incidence rate, 5.3 versus 53.1 per million person-days; weighted incidence rate ratio, 0.08).

Our findings "highlight the potential benefit from booster vaccination, specifically in vulnerable populations living with multimorbidity, and support the recent focus on older people and those with chronic conditions for future booster doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines beyond the first booster," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer.

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British Columbia is preparing for a fall rollout of an updated COVID-19 vaccine, tailored specifically to the Omicron variant. Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry emphasized that the new vaccine should be seen as an annual immunization similar to the flu shot, rather than just a booster dose. The recommendation from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) suggests that Canadians should receive the updated vaccine if it has been six months since their last dose or COVID-19 infection. The aim is to provide protection against the strains circulating in Canada and globally, building upon the immunity gained from previous vaccinations. The province plans to make the vaccination process easy and convenient, and anyone who wants the vaccine will be offered it. With the anticipation of a potential fall surge of the virus, health officials are urging the public to stay informed and take advantage of this updated vaccine to help combat COVID-19 and ensure community protection...Read More

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FRIDAY, March 29, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- There has been a rise in invasive meningococcal disease, mainly attributable to Neisseria meningitidis serogroup Y, according to an alert issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There were 422 cases of invasive meningococcal disease in 2023, the most seen since 2014. So far this year, 143 cases have already been reported, meaning meningitis infections in 2024 will likely surpass 2023 numbers, the CDC added.

Most of the cases last year did not involve meningitis, though at least 17 patients died. The infections were more common in adults ages 30 to 60 years, in Black people, and in people who have HIV, the report revealed.

The CDC alert comes after the Virginia Department of Health warned of a rise in cases linked to the same rare, serious form of meningococcal disease back in 2022.

While antibiotics can quell the infection, quick treatment is critical, the CDC said. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of infected people die, and survivors sometimes suffer deafness or amputations.

Luckily, there are vaccines that shield against meningococcal disease. The CDC recommends that all children get a meningococcal conjugate vaccine, which protects against the rising strain, around the time they enter middle school. Because vaccine protection fades, the CDC also recommends a booster dose at age 16 years. Shots are also recommended for people at higher risk, like those living where an outbreak is occurring or those with HIV infection or other immune-compromising health conditions.

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WEDNESDAY, June 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- COVID-19 boosters may be offered this fall, but first scientists need to determine what strains to target and who should receive the shots.

Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are slated to meet Thursday to discuss plans for fall, a decision with a deadline because drugmakers will need to have the time to manufacture the shots, NBC News reported. The process is similar to deciding on an annual flu vaccine.

FDA scientists said redesigned boosters should target at least one variant of XBB, according to briefing documents published Monday. XBB strains have been spreading since last fall and are related to an omicron subvariant. "These data suggest that an updated strain composition of COVID-19 vaccines to more closely match currently circulating omicron sublineages is warranted for the 2023-2024 vaccination campaign," the scientists write.

As the virus has changed, vaccines have evolved, from a shot in December 2020 that targeted the original virus to FDA-approved shots last fall that targeted the original COVID-19 strain as well as the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

The World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency have both said a booster should target an XBB subvariant. XBB.1.5 is the dominant strain now circulating, with 40 percent of new cases having this strain, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 18 percent of new cases have XBB.1.16 and 12.5 percent have XBB.1.9.1. Current boosters provide some protection against XBB.1.5, but not as much as for BA.4 and BA.5.

It would make sense if the COVID-19 boosters were offered to everyone in the fall, Ofer Levy, M.D., director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children's Hospital, told NBC News. "In my mind, it seems like a logical framework," said Levy, a member of the FDA advisory committee who will be involved in Thursday's meeting. "It will boost your antibody response and it probably affects your T cells as well, in a positive way."

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TUESDAY, Jan. 24, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For immunocompromised adults, adherence to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mRNA monovalent COVID-19 booster dose recommendations is low, according to a study published online Jan. 20 in JAMA Network Open.

Sara Y. Tartof, Ph.D., M.P.H., from Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena, and colleagues examined mRNA COVID-19 vaccine uptake and factors associated with uptake among immunocompromised adults from Dec. 14, 2020, through Aug. 6, 2022, in a cohort study. A total of 42,697 immunocompromised individuals met the eligibility criteria.

The researchers found that 78.0 percent of the immunocompromised individuals had received a third dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, while only 41.0 percent had received a fourth dose, corresponding to a primary series and monovalent booster dose. Following the CDC recommendation to receive a second monovalent booster (fifth dose), only 0.9 percent had uptake. The likelihood of receiving at least four doses was increased for adults aged 65 years or older compared with those aged 18 to 44 or 45 to 64 years (hazard ratios, 3.95 and 2.52, respectively). The likelihood of receiving at least four doses was lower for Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black adults versus non-Hispanic White adults (hazard ratios, 0.77 and 0.82, respectively), for individuals with prior documented severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection versus no infection (hazard ratio, 0.71), and for those receiving versus not receiving high-dose corticosteroids (hazard ratio, 0.88).

"Given the vulnerability of this population to develop severe COVID-19, a renewed focus on targeted and tailored efforts to ensure that immunocompromised individuals remain up to date with continuously evolving COVID-19 booster dose recommendations is warranted at this stage of the pandemic," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, which funded the study.

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TUESDAY, March 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Full vaccination cuts the risk for all-cause mortality for breakthrough severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among chronic liver disease (CLD) patients with cirrhosis by two-thirds, according to a study published in the March issue of Hepatology.

Jin Ge, M.D., from the University of California in San Francisco, and colleagues used data from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative to identify 278,457 CLD patients with or without cirrhosis who had SARS-CoV-2 testing.

Fifteen percent of CLD patients were vaccinated as of Jan. 15, 2022. The researchers found that for CLD patients without cirrhosis and with cirrhosis, breakthrough infection incidences were 5.4 and 4.9 per 1,000 person-months, respectively, for fully vaccinated individuals. Among CLD patients with cirrhosis, including 68,048 unvaccinated and 10,441 vaccinated, 15 and 3.7 percent, respectively, developed SARS-CoV-2 infection. For unvaccinated and vaccinated CLD patients with cirrhosis, the 30-day outcome of mechanical ventilation or death after SARS-CoV-2 infection was 15.2 and 7.7 percent, respectively. Full vaccination was associated with a lower risk for death (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.34) at 30 days versus unvaccinated patients with cirrhosis.

"As the COVID‐19 pandemic continues to evolve with the emergence of new variants, vaccination (with potential variant‐specific boosters) will remain a cornerstone strategy to continue protecting patients with liver diseases," the authors write.

One author disclosed receiving grants from Merck.

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TUESDAY, Jan. 24, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday asked its vaccine advisory panel to weigh a proposal to turn COVID-19 vaccines into an annual shot for most Americans.

Such a move would simplify future vaccination efforts, a critical point given the fact that efforts to get people to get COVID-19 booster shots have fallen far short of expectations. While more than 80 percent of Americans have had at least one dose of the original COVID-19 vaccine, only 16 percent of those older than the age of 5 years have gotten the updated booster shots that were approved last August, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The committee will consider the FDA proposal at its Jan. 26 meeting. If it recommends the concept be turned into policy and the agency follows those recommendations, COVID-19 shots would likely become much like annual flu shots.

In documents filed with the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the FDA noted that "the totality of the available evidence on prior exposure to and vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) suggests that, moving forward, most individuals may only need to receive one dose of an approved or authorized COVID-19 vaccine to restore protective immunity for a period of time."

For the very young, seniors, and those who are immunocompromised, the agency noted that two doses may be needed to induce enough immunity to protect against COVID-19 infection. In its proposal, the FDA suggested an annual vaccine approval system similar to the one used for the flu.

"The FDA anticipates conducting an assessment of SARS-CoV-2 strains at least annually and to engage [the vaccine advisory committee] in about early June of each year regarding strain selection for the fall season. Subsequently, a decision on the recommended vaccine composition would be made in time for any updated vaccine to be in production in time to be deployed for use no later than September of each calendar year," the agency added.

Along with simplifying when a COVID-19 vaccine should be given, the FDA also wants to switch all COVID-19 vaccines to target the same strains, because that would make the shots interchangeable and simpler to administer. The agency proposes to use the updated bivalent booster shots, which protect against both the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the omicron variants that now dominate in the United States. According to the CDC, the XBB variant now accounts for just over 49 percent of all U.S. infections.

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WEDNESDAY, March 15, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- The time to resolution of axillary lymphadenopathy after the COVID-19 vaccine booster is 102 days, according to a study published online Feb. 27 in the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Eralda Mema, M.D., from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, and colleagues conducted a retrospective single-institution study of 54 patients with unilateral axillary lymphadenopathy ipsilateral to a booster dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine visualized on ultrasound performed between Sept. 1, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2022, who underwent follow-up until lymphadenopathy resolution.

Six of the patients had a history of breast cancer and two had symptoms related to the axillary lymphadenopathy (axillary pain). The researchers found that the lymphadenopathy resolved at a mean of 102 days after the booster dose and at 84 days after initial ultrasound. No significant associations were seen for age, vaccine booster type (Moderna versus Pfizer), or history of breast cancer with time to resolution in univariable or multivariable analyses. Time to resolution was significantly shorter after a booster dose compared with after the first dose of the initial series (mean, 129 days).

"Axillary lymphadenopathy after a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine required a mean of 102 days to show resolution on follow-up ultrasound examinations," the authors write. "This duration supports application in the setting of booster doses of the current recommendation for a follow-up interval of at least 12 weeks, as well as avoidance of screening mammography delays, for suspected vaccine-related lymphadenopathy."

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For most patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), there is no increased risk for relapse after COVID-19 vaccination, according to a study published online Aug. 14 in Neurology.

Xavier Moisset, M.D., Ph.D., from the Universite Clermont Auvergne in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and colleagues conducted a nationwide study using data from the French National Health Data System to estimate the risk for severe relapse after one, two, and three (booster) doses of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with MS. A total of 124,545 patients with MS were identified on Jan. 1, 2021; 82 percent received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine until Dec. 31, 2021, with a total of 259,880 doses.

The researchers found that the combined incidence rate ratio was 0.97 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.91 to 1.03; P = 0.30) for MS relapse. In various subgroups, including those aged younger than 50 years, with a duration of MS <10 years, and using disease-modifying treatments (DMTs), the same absence of risk was confirmed. For patients with high MS activity, especially when not treated, a small increase in relapse risk was seen after a booster dose (incidence rate ratio, 1.39; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.08 to 1.80).

"These vaccines can be used without any worry about the risk of relapse to provide booster doses to patients for whom they are warranted," the authors write. "However, particular caution is needed for patients with the highest inflammatory activity in the previous two years, who should first receive DMT."

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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FRIDAY, Jan. 27, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory panel on Thursday voted unanimously to recommend that the agency phase out original versions of COVID-19 vaccines for use in the unvaccinated, in favor of updated bivalent booster shots, NBC News reported.

Committee members also weighed a proposal to streamline the dosing schedule for COVID-19 vaccines by turning them into annual shots that would likely be given every fall. However, the committee did not vote on the proposal because many questions remain and more data on exactly who should get those annual shots, and exactly when, are sorely needed.

Still, the committee members agreed that COVID-19 vaccines do need to become more routine to clear up public confusion and hopefully boost vaccination rates. Such a move would be critical, given the fact that efforts to get people to get the updated COVID-19 booster shots have fallen far short of expectations. While more than 80 percent of Americans have had at least one dose of the original COVID-19 vaccine, only 16 percent of those older than 5 years of age have gotten the updated booster shots that were approved last August, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some committee members said it was too soon to say whether annual doses were needed, as they are for the flu. But the FDA believes the time is right for annual shots targeting the latest COVID-19 variants, even though Peter Marks, M.D., the agency's top vaccine regulator, acknowledged during the meeting that simplifying the COVID-19 vaccine schedule to be exactly like the flu vaccine schedule may not be possible.

Jerry Weir, M.D., director of the Division of Viral Products at the FDA Office of Vaccines Research and Review, reassured committee members during the meeting that even if COVID-19 vaccines did become an annual affair, an emergency meeting would be called to discuss whether new boosters are needed if a new, dangerous variant suddenly emerged, NBC News reported.

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THURSDAY, June 15, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend that COVID-19 booster shots be updated for the fall to protect solely against one of the three XBB variants that have taken hold in the United States.

Those three XBB variants, which are all sublineages of the omicron variant, are XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, and XBB.2.3, CNN reported. What will be dropped from the updated vaccines will be protection against the original strain of the virus because experts believe it could contribute to lower vaccine efficacy against newer strains.

"Your immune response likes to react to what it's seen before," David Ho, M.D., a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University whose research was cited in FDA briefing documents, told CNN. "That's why we made the recommendation that if you want to broaden out your antibody responses, it's best to remove the ancestral spike in future vaccines."

Although the FDA will make the final decision on the updated vaccines, it typically follows the advice of its advisory panels.

While infections have declined across the United States, the virus could be a concern next winter, the FDA's vaccine chief Peter Marks, M.D., said as the daylong meeting began, the Associated Press reported. "We're concerned that we may have another wave of COVID-19 during a time when the virus has further evolved, immunity of the population has waned further, and we move indoors for wintertime," he told the panel.

A big question will be who should get the updated boosters, Paul Offit, M.D., a vaccine scientist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the advisory committee, told CNN before Thursday's meeting. "What's the goal of the vaccine?" he asked. "If the goal of the vaccine is the stated goal, which is protection against severe disease, do you really need a yearly vaccine for otherwise healthy people less than 75? I mean, is this the flu model? Because I would argue it shouldn't be."

It is important to have evidence about whether protection from the COVID-19 vaccine against hospitalization and death is waning and, if so, in which groups, Offit added. In a presentation at the advisory panel meeting, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there is evidence of waning protection from bivalent boosters against hospitalization, CNN reported.

COVID-19 boosters will likely be offered this fall, once they are redesigned by vaccine makers.

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By taking inspiration from the evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2 itself, scientists in China have crafted a new vaccine that, at least in animal models, provides protection against omicron and an array of its subvariants.

Even though early generations of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and boosters have been extremely successful, viral evolution and the emergence of immune evasion have made subsequent vaccines more difficult to produce. As it turns out, the viral spike protein has regions that have remained highly conserved across recent SARS-CoV-2 variants. These conserved regions are veritable catalogs of evolutionary data with which to craft a next-generation vaccine. The spike protein is the business end of the virus that binds to human ACE-2 receptors to initiate infection.

To address the critical problem of immune escape and to begin the arduous task of developing a new vaccine, Dr. Yongliang Zhao and colleagues at State Key Laboratory of Virology, a division of Wuhan University in China, hope to blunt the impact of subvariants in the future with a new kind of vaccine. The experimental vaccine they are already testing in lab mice is based on conserved regions of the spike protein, which means the vaccine is intimately linked to parts of the spike that rarely mutate. The Wuhan team is quietly voicing optimism about their research, which they hope will serve as a model for future vaccines, a pan-protective immunization—a universal shot that guards against existing variants and threats that may arise in the future...Read more

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TUESDAY, Feb. 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Vaccine protection against severe outcomes from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) lasts at least six months after the second dose, but protection is lower for older patients, according to a study published online Feb. 3 in JAMA Network Open.

Yuchen Wei, Ph.D., from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues examined the change in vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization and mortality due to the omicron variant in a case-control study involving adults with SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant infection who died or were hospitalized from Jan. 1 to June 5, 2022 (32,823 case participants) and propensity score-matched adults with SARS-CoV-2 omicron (131,328 control participants).

The researchers found that for at least six months after the second dose of both the CoronaVac and BNT162b2 vaccines, vaccine effectiveness against death or hospitalization was maintained (74.0 and 77.4 percent, respectively). In those aged 18 to 49 years, vaccine effectiveness against death was 86.4 and 92.9 percent for those receiving two doses of CoronaVac and BNT162b2, respectively, while for patients aged 80 years and older, vaccine effectiveness decreased to 61.4 and 52.7 percent, respectively. At four to six months after the third dose, overall vaccine effectiveness against death was >90 percent for CoronaVac, BNT162b2, and the mixed vaccine schedule.

"A booster dose is recommended for older individuals to restore immunity," the authors write. "This is especially critical in a setting like Hong Kong, where coverage of the third dose of the vaccine is still insufficient among older residents."

One author disclosed financial ties to Beth Bioinformatics.

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