Pfizers updated booster is targeting Omicron variants

 New data confirms that Pfizer's updated booster is targeting Omicron 

variants.

New test data shows that Pfizer's updated COVID-19 booster shot is more 

powerful against omicron sub variants than the original shot, the company 

announced Thursday.

"These early data suggest that our bivalent vaccine is anticipated to deliver 

better protection against presently circulating variants than the original 

vaccine and potentially help check unborn case surges this winter," Pfizer 

CEO Albert Bourla said in a company press release.  

Blood samples taken from 80 people a week after they received their updated 

boosters showed "a substantial increase" in their neutralizing antibody response 

against the two omicron subvariants, BA.5 and BA.5, now accounting for 93 

percent of all new COVID cases in the US-19 cases. The researchers found 

that the antibody response in people over the age of 55 was "more limited" 

when faced with the omicron variants. The company is running a similar 

comparison among younger adults.

Pfizer has also been testing the streamlined booster in mice. In that research, 

he found that the new injections provided at least "incremental benefit." While 

Moderna, the only other company with an updated COVID-19 booster vaccine, 

has published the results of its own mouse study, it has not commented on when 

it will have updated effectiveness data from human clinical trials, CBS News 

reported.

When the federal government approved the boosters in September, it did so in 

hopes of getting ahead of a winter surge in the virus. At the time, advisers to the 

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel shared 

their reservations about allowing boosters without human data. Still, US Food 

and Drug Administration officials stressed that other vaccines are tested in the 

same way.

This news has been researched multi news site.