The Food and Drug Administration told vaccine manufacturers their fall Covid-19 vaccines should target the widespread XBB.1.5 offshoot of Omicron.
The directive, which the agency announced Friday, means the fall booster campaign will bring the third version of a Covid-19 shot, after the initial jab targeted the original strain of the virus and the most current vaccine takes aim at both the original virus and an earlier Omicron variant.
The updated shots promise to offer broad protection against the coronavirus so long as the virus doesn’t mutate too much, since XBB.1.5 stems from Omicron and is related to the various forms of Omicron circulating around the U.S.
Vaccine manufacturers said at a meeting Thursday that experimental shots targeting XBB.1.5 showed they did a good job at also stimulating the immune system to attack other XBB varieties.