New formula
The FDA has approved an updated batch of Covid boosters from pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer as the agency continues to monitor rising Covid hospitalizations across the US.
The new shots are made from a single component of the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant — unlike previous jabs that contained components from original 2020 strains of the virus — and will be rolled out this week after the CDC signed them off yesterday.
After record-low weekly hospitalization rates at the end of June, when only 6,315 Americans were newly admitted to hospital with Covid, the US has seen the figure rise in each of the last 8 weeks, the longest streak since the end of 2022. Last week, the CDC reported 18,871 new Covid hospitalizations in the US. That’s a 190% rise since the end-of-summer uptick started, although the numbers remain substantially lower than any of the winter peaks of 2021 or 2022.
Straining
While the current case surge is being attributed to the emerging BA.2.86 strain, the FDA says the updated jabs will “more closely target currently circulating variants”. With cooler weather and school back in session, it’s hardly unusual for flu-like infections to start ticking up as we begin to get nearer to Winter, though the WHO has described recent Covid trends around the world as “concerning”.
