A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is recommending the formula for the COVID-19 vaccine be updated so that it targets the most dominant variant of the virus. If the June 15 recommendation is approved, the updated vaccine should be available to people this fall. Yale School of Public Health Associate Professor Jason L. Schwartz has been following the developments closely. Schwartz recently took a moment to answer questions about the proposed new vaccine, the protection it offers, and why COVID-19 vaccinations are still important even though the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic emergency is technically over. The following is a transcript of that conversation.
Dr. Schwartz, what can you tell us about the new COVID-19 vaccine formulation being proposed by the FDA advisory panel?
J.S.: So just as the virus has continued to evolve over the past few years, we recognize that the vaccine needs to be updated as well to keep up with those emerging variants. What yesterday's meeting of the FDA vaccine advisors determined was that as we approach next fall and winter, it's time to update the vaccine again to match the most dominant variant, which is known as XBB. The XBB variant accounts for the overwhelming majority of COVID infections at this point. So, these advisors have recommended a new formulation to the FDA, which is highly likely to accept it. Once the FDA approves the new formulation, vaccine manufacturers will go about updating their vaccines so that a new vaccine could be available by about Labor Day or about the time that the next wave of COVID vaccinations begins.
Some people may wonder why they need another COVID vaccine if the COVID-19 pandemic emergency is technically over. What advice would you give them?
J.S. We continue to see significant numbers of COVID infections. We continue to see – thankfully – reduced numbers of hospitalizations and deaths. But COVID is still a significant presence in our communities. And we know that vaccination, particularly for those groups that are at high risk of having severe outcomes, can be a really powerful tool to reduce the likelihood of folks getting seriously ill or hospitalized, or God forbid, dying due to Covid. We've learned over these past two years that the protection from vaccination, while good, is not indefinite and that that protection wanes. As individuals get farther away from their most recent vaccine dose, an updated and reformulated vaccine can really be an important supplement to protect all of us, and particularly, those folks who might still be at risk of the really severe outcomes from COVID that we've seen so profoundly throughout the pandemic.
If people aren’t up to date on all the earlier COVID vaccines and boosters, can they or should they still get the updated vaccine this fall?
J.S.: That’s a great question. This is something the FDA and the CDC discussed and, as a result, they dramatically simplified the vaccination schedules earlier this spring because it was so complicated. At this point, given how many individuals have either been vaccinated, exposed to COVID, or both, public health officials have reduced the number of vaccines and the number of doses that they recommend for someone to be considered up to date. Whether you've received all your vaccine doses going back over a period of years or none of them, the definition of someone being up to date with COVID vaccines is whether they received the most recent bivalent booster, the one that was introduced last fall. That booster is recommended for everyone. If someone has not received any doses, they're recommended to get that bivalent vaccine now. If a person has received all their doses, including the most recent booster, then they're up to date as we head into fall.
They're trying to make the COVID program similar to our flu vaccination program where we have a flu vaccination campaign, it's recommended for some individuals, they get their flu vaccine each fall, and they're done. Public health officials want the COVID vaccine program to be as simple and straightforward and familiar as the flu vaccine. That's the model. And I think that's what we'll see as these recommendations get developed later this summer and into the fall.