As the federal government prepares to scrutinise how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled, a group of Australian scientists have fixed their sights on a crucial aspect of managing the virus in the future: the rollout of new vaccines.

They’ve analysed years of data to challenge a fundamental assumption: are newer vaccines actually better at protecting us against disease, especially when new variants easily outpace and outfox the rollout of new boosters?

Should we bother continually updating the vaccine?Credit: AP

This is the first analysis in the world to try to answer that question.

The results are fascinating, but there are important caveats – chief among them that the research is a pre-print, so it hasn’t been peer reviewed yet. Let’s take a look.

By the time a new COVID vaccine is tested, approved and released, invariably the immunogen used to create the vaccine – i.e. the spike protein it’s designed to replicate in the body – doesn’t match up with the dominant variant circulating in the community.

“Things move on, the virus mutates very quickly,” says Associate Professor Deborah Cromer, lead author of the research and head of the Infection Epidemiology and Policy Analytics Group at the Kirby Institute at the University of NSW.

The XBB1.5 monovalent vaccine is the newest booster available in Australia. But XBB1.5 – the “Kraken” variant – reached the height of its power about a year ago. JN.1 is the variant now dominant in Australia, the US, France and India.

Taking a look at the variant distribution in NSW, you can see XBB1.5 occupies a tiny share of COVID-19 infections, whereas JN.1 is responsible for about three-quarters of infections.

QOSHE - Do the latest vaccines better protect us from COVID-19? - Angus Dalton
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Do the latest vaccines better protect us from COVID-19?

7 5
20.02.2024

As the federal government prepares to scrutinise how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled, a group of Australian scientists have fixed their sights on a crucial aspect of managing the virus in the future: the rollout of new vaccines.

They’ve analysed years of data to challenge a fundamental assumption: are newer vaccines actually better at protecting us against disease, especially when new variants easily outpace and........

© The Sydney Morning Herald


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