Pfizer announced Saturday that tweaking its COVID-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and works—just days before regulators debate whether to offer Americans updated booster shots this fall.
Pfizer announced Saturday that tweaking its COVID-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and works—just days before regulators debate whether to offer AmericansThe vaccines currently used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death—especially if people have gotten a. But those vaccines target the original coronavirus strain and their effectiveness against any infection dropped markedly when the super-contagious omicron mutant emerged.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech studied two different ways of updating their shots—targeting just omicron, or a combination booster that adds omicron protection to the original "Based on these data, we believe we have two very strong omicron-adapted candidates," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.But many experts say combination shots may be the best approach because they would retain the proven benefits of the original COVID-19 vaccine while adding new protection against omicron. And Pfizer said a month after people received its combo shot, they had a 9 to 11-fold increase in omicron-fighting antibodies. That's more than 1.
The studies weren't designed to track how well updated boosters prevented COVID-19 cases. Nor is it clear how long any added protection would last.
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