WHO’s Technical Advisory Group for COVID-19 Vaccine Composition has issued a statement today following their meeting last week, advising on the composition of future formulations of COVID-19 vaccines.
The group reviews the performance of currently available COVID-19 vaccines in the context of virus evolution. The ongoing work and updates they provide aim to enhance vaccine-induced immune responses to circulating variants.
Current COVID-19 vaccines continue to be highly protective against severe disease and death. Updating the vaccine composition takes into account evolution of the virus and the circulating variants, and aims to improve protection against symptomatic disease.
The group suggests that future formulations of COVID-19 vaccines use newer variants in their composition, i.e., XBB.1 descendant lineages.
WHO strongly encourages the use of available authorized COVID-19 vaccines, which include the index virus, according to recommendations from the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), updated in March 2023.
The full statement is available here: https://www.who.int/news/item/18-05-2023-statement-on-the-antigen-composition-of-covid-19-vaccines
