Mayo Clinic expert answers questions about the new COVID-19 vaccine

Ahead of the fall respiratory virus season, the Food and Drug Administration has approved two updated COVID-19 vaccines. The new messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are formulated to better target variants that are currently circulating and will replace outdated vaccines.
"The new vaccine that was just approved by the FDA is essentially a COVID vaccine targeting a different strain of the COVID virus than was in the original vaccine or in the bivalent vaccines that came out last year. It's still a COVID vaccine, but it's now targeting the XBB.1.5 strain, which has been the omicron-type virus that's been circulating throughout the U.S. and most parts of the world since the beginning of this year," says Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert.
"It's not exactly a booster. I would liken it to the updated influenza vaccine that comes out each year. The influenza vaccine is updated each year as the strains that they protect against change year from year," says Dr. Sampathkumar.
____________________________________________
FOR THE PUBLIC: More health and medical news on the Mayo Clinic News Network. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/
FOR THE MEDIA ONLY: Register at newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/re...
to access clean and nat sound versions of this video on the Mayo Clinic News Network. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/
Mayo Clinic: mayocl.in/3tNMAdF
Like Mayo Clinic on Facebook: / mayoclinic
Follow Mayo Clinic on Instagram / mayoclinic
Follow Mayo Clinic on X, formerly Twitter: x.com/MayoClinic
Follow Mayo Clinic on Threads: www.threads.net/@mayoclinic