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Omicron Booster Shots Are Coming – With Lots of Questions
Article

Omicron Booster Shots Are Coming – With Lots of Questions

COVID-19 vaccines get their first update since the pandemic began. Here’s what you need to know about them

Gretchen Vogel
Science, 2022
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Scientific
  • Applicable
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

There is still so much misinformation, confusion and decision fatigue surrounding COVID-19. Reformulated Omicron-specific vaccines have just received authorized use approval, and many people are wondering if they should get one. These new vaccines should provide better protection against new viral variants than the original vaccine. People should definitely get boosted. Even another shot of the original would provide protection against severe disease. 

Summary

The new COVID-19 boosters contain some of the original formula plus some mRNA from the newer Omicron variants.

The original Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines both use mRNA (messenger RNA) encoding the spike protein of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. The new boosters still contain half of that mRNA formulation, but the other half is the mRNA encoding the spike protein from either the BA. 1 Omicron subvariant (in Europe) or the BA. 4 and BA. 5 Omicron subvariants (in the United States). That...

About the Author

Gretchen Vogel is a contributing correspondent for Science magazine based in Berlin, Germany.

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