Scientists question relevance of fall COVID booster

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A panel of independent advisors to the FDA is slated to announce Tuesday whether they will recommend the agency give the green light for an additional COVID booster this fall.

Unlike the previous shots, this booster is reformulated to fight omicron. 

The results of the clinical trial showing its effectiveness are promising. However, some scientists say omicron has come and gone. Omicron’s relatives–B.4 and B.5–are taking its place. 

So, what’s the point of a shot that protects against a variant that’s gone by the wayside? 

News 8 spoke with Dr. Christopher Doehring, vice president of medical affairs at Franciscan Health, who says the tweaked booster does have its benefits.

“It’s certainly fulfilling the promise of these mRNA vaccines and we can pretty quickly tell how well we’re targeting the different strains. What we’re hopefully going to be hearing later this week from the FDA is that we’ve got some promising new data–we’re certainly hearing that from the manufacturers–that would then allow us to get an updated vaccine,” Doehring said.

Doehring also says findings from the clinical trials studying the updated vaccines are being done quickly and efficiently with results coming out in close to real time. 

This, Doehring says, allows manufacturers to keep pace as COVID continues to mutate making it possible to make conclusions based on data assessing protection against previous mutations.