According to international experts, the ongoing adaptation of corona vaccines should forgo the virus of origin and target the current dominant virus strains. This was announced by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Vaccine Advisory Panel in Geneva on Thursday.
Vaccines on the market prevented severe disease, but protection against typical corona symptoms was “limited and less durable,” the panel found. “Covid-19 vaccines with new compositions are needed to improve protection against symptomatic courses of disease,” WHO advisers urged.
Omicron derivatives
Currently, XBB.1 virus strains are the most prevalent globally. They are derived from the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Therefore, the panel recommended that one of the XBB.1 derivatives be used as an antigen to elicit the necessary response from the human immune system.
Some currently licensed vaccines still contain the version of the virus identified at the beginning of the pandemic. However, the WHO panel pointed out that this “index virus” no longer plays a role in current infection events and is barely effective against XBB strains. Therefore, it should disappear from future vaccine formulations, it said.
- source: kurier.at/picture: pixabay.com
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