Although, since the beginning of May, the World Health Organization (WHO) no longer considers Covid-19 a global health emergency, the virus is still circulating and new strains continue to emerge. The latest: the XBB.1.5 sub-variant, which caught up with many French people during the summer.
To better combat it as winter approaches, the European Commission authorized this Friday, September 15, the Moderna vaccine updated to target this sub-variant of Covid-19. At the beginning of September, it had already given the green light to the updated version of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended in June that vaccines be updated to target the XBB strain of the virus, which has become dominant in Europe and other parts of the world.
The updated vaccine from the American laboratory Moderna, targeting the XBB.1.5 sub-variant from Omicron, has been approved for adults and children over 5 years old, who will have to receive a single injection regardless of their previous vaccinations received. The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines more generally offer better protection against other variants currently in circulation. Both have been approved in recent weeks by the EMA, the European regulator.
The Commission has authorized the placing on the market of these updated vaccines under an accelerated procedure in order to enable Member States to prepare their autumn and winter vaccination campaigns in time. American health authorities announced on Monday that they were authorizing updates to the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, at a time when the number of hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 is increasing in the country.