Bivalent boosters: Aotearoa’s winter defence against COVID-19

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In print

Vaccines

Bivalent boosters: Aotearoa’s winter defence against COVID-19

10 May 2023

By Mika Hiroi and Cayley Ingham

Wednesday 10 May 2023, 12:35 AM

A “winter wave” of COVID-19 is likely to burden the healthcare system [Image: Osman Rana on Unsplash]

Changes to the COVID-19 booster can be thought of as similar to the way the influenza vaccine is changed annually – the bivalent booster is the first step along that road

Key points, COVID-19 variants are increasingly immune-evasive. Waning immunity from previous boosters has necessitated the introduction of a bivalent COVID-19 v, Pract Green w Pale Yellow

COVID-19

References

Tenforde MW, Weber ZA, Natarajan K, et al. Early estimates of bivalent mRNA vaccine effectiveness in preventing COVID-19-associated emergency department or urgent care encounters and hospitalizations among immunocompetent adults – VISION Network, Nine States, September–November, 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71(5152):1616–24.
Surie D, DeCuir J, Zhu Y, et al. Early estimates of bivalent mRNA vaccine effectiveness in preventing COVID-19-associated hospitalization among immunocompetent adults aged ≥65 years – IVY Network, 18 States, September 8–November 30, 2022. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2022;71(5152):1625–30.
Lin D-Y, Xu Y, Gu Y, et al. Effectiveness of bivalent boosters against severe Omicron infection. N Engl J Med 2023;388:764–66.
Link-Gelles R, Ciesla AA, Roper LE, et al. Early estimates of bivalent mRNA booster dose vaccine effectiveness in preventing symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection attributable to Omicron BA.5- and XBB/XBB.1.5-related sublineages among immunocompetent adults – increasing community access to testing program, United States, December 2022–January 2023. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72(5):119–24.

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