In a few weeks, the new Covid booster shot will roll out to Americans, designed to fight recent variants just as cases begin to tick up with colder weather. There is just one hitch with this plan: Covid does not actually appear to be a seasonal virus, as many expected.
When it comes to Covid, “everybody’s using the paradigm they know, which is influenza,” said Gregory Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic. “It isn’t working. We just have to be really careful with fooling ourselves into thinking we understand this by saying this is seasonal.”
Since the start of the global pandemic in 2020, the only certain thing about the virus has been that it’s full of surprises. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration announced it was considering a shift away from frequent boosters, replacing them with a seasonal shot for most people, much like the flu. The new shot this fall will target XBB.1.5, the variant that was driving infections in June, when the FDA released guidelines for vaccine developers.
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