COVID-19 shots work but improvements being sought
COVID-19 vaccines still offer strong protection against severe illness and death, but Moderna and Pfizer are testing combination shots as a possible new kind of booster.
The vaccines were made to fight the original version of the virus. Variants are chipping away at some of their benefits, particularly their effectiveness against mild infection.
The newer vaccine versions being tested are mixes — the original vaccine and protection against the highly contagious omicron mutant.
Other companies are pursuing nasal vaccines that might one day better prevent milder infections. The hunt for improvements comes amid concern that “booster fatigue” may dampen public confidence in the successful shots.
COVID-19 vaccinations are at a crucial juncture as companies test whether new approaches like combination shots or nasal drops can keep up with a mutating coronavirus — even though it’s not clear if changes are needed.
Already there’s public confusion about who should get a second booster now and who can wait. There’s also debate about whether pretty much everyone might need an extra dose in the fall.
“I’m very concerned about booster fatigue” causing a loss of confidence in vaccines that still offer very strong protection against COVID-19’s worst outcomes, said Dr. Beth Bell of the University of Washington, an adviser to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite success in preventing serious illness and death, there’s growing pressure to develop vaccines better at fending
off milder infections, too — as well as options to counter scary variants.
“We go through a fire drill it seems like every quarter, every three months or so” when another mutant causes frantic tests to determine if the shots are holding, Pfizer vaccine chief Kathrin Jansen told a recent meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Yet seeking improvements for the next round of vaccinations may seem like a luxury for U.S. families anxious to protect their smallest children — kids under 5 who are not yet eligible for a shot.
Moderna’s Dr. Jacqueline Miller said told Associated Press that its application to give two low-dose shots to the youngest children would be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration “fairly soon.”
Pfizer hasn’t yet reported data on a third dose of its extra-small shot for tots, after two didn’t prove strong enough.
The original COVID-19 vaccines remain protective against serious illness, hospitalization and death, especially after a booster dose, even against the most contagious variants.
Updating the vaccine recipe to match the latest variants is risky, because the next mutant could be completely unrelated. So companies are taking a cue from the flu vaccine, which offers protection against three or four different strains in one shot every year.
Moderna and Pfizer are testing 2-in-1 COVID-19 protection that they hope to offer this fall. Each “bivalent” shot would mix the original, proven vaccine with an omicron-targeted version.
Moderna has a hint the approach could work. It has tested a combo shot that targeted the original version of the virus and an earlier variant named beta — and found vaccine recipients developed modest levels of antibodies capable of fighting not just beta but also newer mutants like omicron.
Moderna now is testing its omicron-targeted bivalent candidate.
But there’s a looming deadline. FDA’s Dr. Doran Fink said if any updated shots are to be given in the fall, the agency would have to decide on a recipe change by early summer.