The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines will protect people from some aspects of COVID-19.
“If authorized or approved, based upon the available evidence, the FDA believes these vaccines with a monovalent XBB.1.5 composition will provide the best available protection against the most serious consequences of the disease resulting from currently circulating variants,” an FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times.
The agency was commenting after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a new subvariant may have an increased ability to escape immunity.
“The large number of mutations in this variant raises concerns of greater escape from existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections compared with other recent variants,” the CDC said in preliminary assessment of BA.2.86.
The FDA earlier this year directed Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax to update their shots to drop the Wuhan variant and focus on XBB.1.5, one of the Omicron subvariants.
Advisers to the agency recommended the move due to the waning effectiveness of the shots.
XBB.1.5 has since been largely displaced by other subvariants, including FL.1.5.1 and EG.5, according to CDC genomic surveillance.
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