The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of independent vaccine experts on Tuesday voted 19 to 2 to recommend new Covid-19 shots that target the omicron variant this fall, when public health officials are expecting a new wave of infections.
It is the first time the panel has proposed that vaccine makers modify the shots to target a different variant. The FDA will likely accept the committee’s recommendation and authorize a vaccine change. However, the panel did not make a recommendation on which omicron subvariant the shots should target.
Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson all developed their vaccines against the original Covid strain that first emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019. But as the virus has rapidly evolved over the course of the pandemic, the vaccines have become less effective at protecting against infection and mild illness, though they are still generally protecting against severe disease.