Updated shots you may soon get to shield against COVID-19 infection were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday.
This year's approval for the updated mRNA vaccines comes much sooner than happened in 2023, when fall vaccines were authorized on Sept. 11. The latest shots from Moderna and Pfizer will now target a variant of the omicron strain of the virus called KP.
2, the FDA said in a statement. "The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been updated with this formula to more closely target currently circulating variants and provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death," the FDA said. The agency had already told Moderna and Pfizer in June that the JN.
1 lineage of SARS-Cov-2 should be the autumn shots' target, and then more specifically the KP.2 strain. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalent COVID variant is now KP.
3.1.1, thought to make up 37% of cases over the past two weeks.
KP.3.1.
1 and KP.2, which are covered by the updated shots, are offshoots of JN.1.
All are members of the omicron family. "Vaccination continues to be the cornerstone of COVID-19 prevention," Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in the statement.
"These updated vaccines meet the agency's rigorous, scientific standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality," he added. "Given the waning immunity of the population from previous.