New bivalent booster shots fail to meet World Health Org's efficacy standard

WASHINGTON (TND) — According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the latest bivalent booster shots for COVID-19, which are supposed to provide protection from new COVID variants, are less than 50% effective.

"The virus that causes COVID-19 changes over time. Keep your protection against COVID-19 up to date by getting a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster dose," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) website insists.

The new CDC report indicates bivalent booster shots were found to be only 48% effective in protecting against the transmission of the newest XBB variant, which is below the World Health Organization's (WHO) 50% threshold to be considered effective.

Furthermore, the report points out that bivalent booster transmission protection against COVID's BA.5 variant, which the bivalent boosters are specifically intended to protect against according to the CDC, is only just slightly above the WHO's effectiveness threshold at 52% vaccine effectiveness.

[T]he relative [vaccine effectiveness] of a bivalent booster dose given 2–3 months earlier compared with no bivalent booster in persons aged 18–49 years was 52% against symptomatic BA.5 infection and 48% against symptomatic XBB/XBB.1.5 infection," the CDC's report, released Wednesday indicated.

The XBB variant was first detected in the United States in August 2022, according to the CDC. XBB, combined with its subvariant, XBB.1.5, accounted for more than half of infections nationwide as of Jan. 21.

Despite these less-than-stellar results regarding rates of transmission among those who have received their latest vaccine booster, the CDC concedes that the goal of the U.S. COVID-19 vaccination program "is to prevent severe disease, including hospitalization and death," as compared to halting transmission.

Thus far, only 15% of the population has gotten their updated bivalent booster shots, according to data from the CDC.

The National Desk (TND) reached out to the CDC for comment on the results of its recently published report but did not immediately hear back prior to publication. If a response is received this story will be updated.