Next generation — with some expected to roll out in coming months — includes variant-targeted shots and, if testing succeeds, a “universal” vaccine.
The vaccination campaign may be moving into a new phase, in which protection will have to be boosted occasionally, which doesn’t mean the vaccines aren’t working.
In particular, shots updated to target new variants will be critical, says Dr. Sharmila Shetty, a vaccines medical adviser for Médecins Sans Frontières.Here are some of the new vaccines that could eventually be rolling out.Doing away with syringes would be a win for the needle-phobic, but inhalable vaccines could also, some researchers hope, mean giving the lungs supercharged protection.
“What we would like to do is really focus the strongest part of the immune response at the site where infection occurs,” he says. However, researchers are now using modified versions of other pathogens that infect your lungs to carry in bits of new virus like the coronavirus, that aren’t able to infect you. It’s essentially how the relatively new inhalable flu vaccine known as FluMist works.
Variants BA.4 and BA.5 in particular represent “an emergent threat to global public health,” the statement said. As of Canada Day the new variant BA.5 was expected to make up 70 per cent of cases in the country. While the new subvariants of Omicron are considered to be no more severe than previous strains, experts say they do appear more spreadable and more able to evade the protection granted by previous vaccines and infections.
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