EU agencies recommend updating vaccines to target current dominant COVID-19 variant

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) – European Medicines Agency (EMA) and The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Tuesday recommended updating COVID-19 vaccines to target XBB strains, a subgroup of omicron variant.

"In line with the outcome of recent meetings of international regulators and the World Health Organization (WHO), EMA’s Emergency Task Force recommends updating vaccines to target XBB strains (a subgroup of omicron), which have become dominant in Europe and other parts of the world," said the EMA and EDCD in a joint statement.

As new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerge, the effect of the vaccines diminishes over time, despite currently authorized vaccines continuing to be effective in preventing hospitalization, according to the statement.

EMA and ECDC also note that the vaccines which target only one strain such as XBB.1.5 are "a reasonable choice to provide protection against current dominant and emerging strains."

The latest update on COVID-19 is that the emergency phase of the pandemic is over and the vaccine helped save almost 20 million lives in its first year, according to EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke.

For his part, Marco Cavaleri, head of Health Threats and Vaccine Strategy, pointed out the ongoing threats the virus poses specifically to the vulnerable.

"COVID-19 caused and continues to cause a significant strain on public health systems, especially during the winter months when transmission of the virus comes on top of other seasonal respiratory illnesses."

Saying that vaccines remain the "best option" in protecting the public against hospitalization and death, Cavaleri added that vaccination will continue to be a key public health intervention in the future.

He also noted that although the currently authorized vaccines continue to offer protection, "this is diminishing over time as new virus variants are emerging."

"So there was broad agreement among regulators that vaccines to be used in the upcoming winter season in the northern hemisphere should include only one virus strain, and that this virus strain should be from the XBB variants which are recombinant viruses within the omicron family," added Cavaleri.

Referring to the joint statement by the ECDC and EMA, Cavaleri said that similar to last year, vulnerable people such as senior adults, immunocompromised individuals, pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions are priority for revaccinations.