Everything to Know About the Updated COVID Boosters
(CNN) -- There's a new kind of Covid-19 shot coming to a pharmacy or clinic near you.The US Food and Drug Administration and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on updated boosters that target the original strain of the coronavirus as well as the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
The hope is that these shots will improve protection against the currently circulating viruses that cause Covid-19.Here's everything you need to know about the new bivalent boosters and who can get them.How are these new bivalent vaccines different?The new bivalent vaccines carry instructions to help our cells make defenses against two strains of the virus that causes Covid-19.
The shots direct cells to make antibodies that bind to certain parts of the spike proteins from both the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, which share an identical spike.BA.4 and BA.5 are the dominant variants in the United States, where there's an average of 91,000 new infections each day."These are vaccines that are made, manufactured and delivered identically to the Covid mRNA vaccines that most of us have already gotten," said Dr.
Gregory Poland, who leads the vaccine research group at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "In a sense, you've just changed the blueprints."Having twice the blueprints doesn't mean you're getting twice the dose of active ingredients, though."The total mRNA content -- the business part of the vaccine -- that leads to the immune response is the same amount," said Dr.
