The World Health Organization (WHO) technical advisory group on COVID-19 vaccines today weighed in on potential updates to COVID-19 vaccines in light of emerging variants such as Omicron, outlining different options and what data are needed to guide new strategies.In other developments, countries experiencing later Omicron surges—especially in Asia—continue to report cases at or near record daily highs.And, in the United States, weekly pediatric COVID-19 cases dropped below 100,000, part of a 6-week decline from the Omicron peak in children.Variants may prompt vaccine tweaksIn a statement, the WHO expert group said it strongly recommends the current vaccines and boosters, because they continue to provide high levels of protection against severe disease and death, even against the backdrop of Omicron spread.
However, they said to optimize protection in the future, different approaches may be needed, such as monovalent versions that target a specific variant or a polyvalent vaccine that protects against multiple ones.Earlier this year, Moderna and Pfizer announced the start of clinical trials to test Omicron-specific vaccines.
Also, testing is under way in Israel to assess the effectiveness of a fourth dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the Omicron variant.Ideally, future vaccines would limit transmission as well as cut infections and deaths, the group said.
And though pansarbecovirus vaccines and vaccines that prompt mucosal immunity might be useful, they added that timeframes for development and production are uncertain.They urged vaccine makers to keep tracking vaccine performance of current vaccines and those being developed against specific variants and to share the data with WHO technical advisors so that the