Boosters

New Omicron-specific vaccines offer similar protection to existing boosters Nature - Updated COVID jabs have been approved in the United States and United Kingdom, but they offer roughly the same protection as existing vaccines, a study suggests. Callaway, Ewen nature

In the coming days, people in the United States and the United Kingdom will be among the first to receive a new breed of COVID-19 vaccine. The hope was that these updated vaccines — based on Omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus — would offer substantially greater protection than older vaccines based on the strain of the virus that emerged in 2019.

EU states urged to roll out COVID booster shots to fend off winter infections EU countries should start offering COVID boosters to their populations now to contain a fresh wave of infections expected this autumn and winter, the bloc's executive said in a document seen by Reuters on Friday ahead of its official release. Reuters Reuters

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Covid-19 Pandemic Timeline Fast Facts Read CNN's Fast Facts about the coronavirus outbreak, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. CNN Editorial Research CNN

Time line:

(CNN) Here's a look at the coronavirus outbreak, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The coronavirus, called Covid-19 by WHO, originated in China and is the cousin of the SARS virus.

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EU regulator clears tweaked versions of COVID vaccines LONDON (AP) — The European Medicines Agency has recommended the authorization of two coronavirus vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Inc., tweaked to include protection against an early version of the omicron variant. AP NEWS

... the EU drug regulator said the two messenger RNA boosters offered protection both against the original version of COVID-19 and the omicron subvariant BA.1, which has since been overtaken globally by later omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. Nearly 80% of coronavirus cases worldwide are now being caused by omicron BA.5, according to the World Health Organization.