Is this year’s COVID booster a good match for new variants? Depending on when you last got vaccinated, that COVID-19 shot may no longer be a good match for the variants expected to dominate this fall and winter. amartichoux The Hill

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While they may not be a perfect match, the latest variants have enough in common with the KP.2 and JN.1 that the boosters should still offer effective cross-protection.

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3 doses of mRNA COVID vaccine show advantage against severe outcomes The authors said COVID-19 infection can result in a "brainstem insult" that results in clusters of physical long-COVID symptoms. CIDRAP

A team led by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers studying Medicare claims data during the early Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant months conclude that a third dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine provides significant protection against hospitalization and death compared with two doses but wanes substantially after 4 months.

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Novavax gets EU authorization for updated COVID vaccine targeting JN.1 strain

The European Commission authorized Novavax's (NVAX.O)

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XEC, like countless others before it, is a part of the omicron family. The variant is closely related to KP.2, the strain targeted by the updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. And both XEC and KP.1 are descendants of the JN.1 strain, targeted by the updated Novavax vaccine.

“I think we have good reason to think that there will be substantial protection from the boosters that are available,” Hanage said.

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