Covid-19 Is Back. Flu and RSV Are Coming. What to Know About Fall Shots.
livemint.comPfizer, Moderna and Novavax all plan to bring boosters to the market this fall. Pfizer expects to win Food and Drug Administration approval in August, with vaccinations starting in September. Novavax said it expects to get clearance and ship doses in September, and Moderna said it is waiting for approval.
Will these shots work against the latest versions of Covid-19, including EG.5, known as Eris? The new boosters target an Omicron subvariant called XBB.1.5 that dominated cases through the spring and summer. It recently declined to a projected 5% of cases, according to federal data, in the midst of a still-busy landscape of Omicron subvariants. A newer subvariant, called EG.5 and unofficially known as Eris, leads the pack at roughly one in five cases, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Preventionprojections.
The World Health Organization saidEG.5 is closely related to XBB.1.5. “Unless we get another variant that pops up, we should have a really good match," said Dr. Linda Yancey, an infectious-disease specialist at Memorial Hermann Health System in Texas.
The virus continues to evolve. Both the WHO and the CDC said they are tracking a new lineage called BA.2.86, dubbed “pirola" by a group of scientists. It is another Omicron subvariant with many mutations, according to health authorities.
Positive cases of BA.2.86 have been reported in the U.S., Denmark, Israel, Portugal, South Africa and the U.K. The variant has also been detected in U.S. wastewater, according to the CDC.
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