Pfizer and BioNTech have shown that their new bivalent COVID booster does what they hoped it would, with the same safety and side effect profile as earlier shots.
The FDA gave emergency authorization to a reformulated COVID booster shot that targets both the original virus and the BA.4 and BA.5 variants.Pfizer and its collaborator BioNTech have shown that their new COVID-19 booster does what they hoped it would, with the same safety and side effect profile as earlier shots.
Now, at 30 days, Pfizer and BioNTech say the fourth shot boosts levels of neutralizing antibodies against the BA.4 and BA.5 variants 13-fold in adults 55 and older and nearly 10-fold in younger adults. People who received a shot targeted solely at the original virus saw a 3-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against those variants.
One variant that's now growing exponentially in the U.S., called BQ.1.1, is"very troublesome," according to Pei-Yong Shi, associate chief research officer and vice president for research innovation at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "Whether the bivalent vaccine will work against this in terms of protection in the United States — the answer to that is I'm not quite sure," he said.
Federal officials said they were comfortable offering the bivalent booster without human data because the same process is typically followed with the annual flu vaccine, where minor changes are only tested for safety and effectiveness in animals before being offered to people. Whether that difference in effectiveness will prove meaningful in the real world — providing enough additional protection to justify the change to the vaccine — remains to be seen.
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