FDA advisors raise doubts about seasonal updates to Covid vaccines as with flu shots
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A person receives a COVID-19 vaccination dose, during a free distribution of COVID-19 rapid test kits for those who received vaccination shots or booster shots, at Union Station on January 7, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Mario Tama | Getty Images The U.S. Food and Drug Administration 's independent panel of advisors raised doubts about the need to "periodically" update Covid vaccines, noting that it's unclear if the virus is seasonal like the flu. Advisors on Thursday unanimously voted that new jabs for the fall should be monovalent — meaning they are designed against one variant of Covid — and target one of the omicron XBB strains . Those are now the dominant variants nationwide. But the original voting question included language about whether the panel recommends a "periodic update" to Covid shots. Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA's vaccine division, asked the panel's chair to strike the wording from the question after severa...