![]() The World Health Organization said in May that its advisory group recommended that updated vaccines target an XBB strain of the virus and leave out the original version. The FDA appears set to follow that advice, which would also keep it in step with international guidance. “That’s why we made the recommendation that if you want to broaden out your antibody responses, it’s best to remove the ancestral spike in future vaccines,” Ho said. ![]() His research has shown that the bivalent boosters, which are designed to target both the original strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 versions of Omicron, produce an immune response that’s similar to a boost with the original vaccine alone – but that infection with the BA.5 strain, encountering the immune system without the older strain alongside it, improves the immune response against newer strains of the virus. ![]() It’s a phenomenon known as immunological imprinting, Ho said: The immune system reacts best to strains it already knows, so showing it the old strain along with new ones hampers the immune response to the new, more relevant strains. David Ho, a professor of microbiology and immunology and director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University whose research is cited in the FDA’s briefing documents. “Your immune response likes to react to what it’s seen before,” said Dr. This single-strain or monovalent vaccine would drop protection against the original strain of the virus that emerged in China in late 2019, a version that experts don’t expect to return and whose continued inclusion in vaccines may contribute to lower efficacy against newer strains. What does the end of the Covid-19 national emergency mean? Our medical analyst explains ![]() (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) Steve Helber/AP The Biden administration will end most of the last remaining federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements next week when the national public health emergency for the coronavirus ends, the White House said Monday, May 1, 2023. In his blog post, the philanthropist, climate activist and public health advocate not only expressed his excitement over how an increasingly digital future will affect the ways we work, learn and even visit the doctor's office - he also touched on several other topics, including our progress in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, fighting climate change, his concerns over America's deepening political divisions, and even Gates' own 2021 divorce.FILE - Pfizer, left, and Moderna bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are readied for use at a clinic, Nov. "We're approaching a threshold where the technology begins to truly replicate the experience of being together in the office," he writes. "There's still some work to do," but it won't be long before the metaverse is making remote work feel a little less remote, he says. Gates also admits that, in order "to accurately capture your expressions, body language, and the quality of your voice," people will need expensive tech devices, like VR headsets and maybe even motion-capture gloves. First of all, tech companies like Meta, and even gaming platforms like Roblox and Microsoft's own Minecraft, are still developing the virtual worlds that will make up the metaverse. Of course, Gates notes that it will take time and willingness from users and their employers before his vision for a virtual workplace in the metaverse becomes reality.
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