Health
UK approves Omicron booster ahead of Vaccine Drive
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#UnitedKingdom, August 21, 2022 – The United Kingdom has become the first country to approve Moderna’s new omicron fighting booster; the announcement was made in a press release on Monday.
The Bivalent booster vaccine is a mixture of the original vaccine and a new omicron fighting vaccine to give
“A booster with the bivalent Moderna vaccine triggers a strong immune response against both Omicron (BA.1) and the original 2020 strain. In an exploratory analysis the bivalent vaccine was also found to generate a good immune response against the Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5.”
The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency also maintained that no new side effects were recorded and the ones that were recorded were mild and self-resolving
“What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armoury to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve,” Dr. June Raine, MHRA Chief Executive said.
The UK is set to start its autumn booster drive in several weeks in an effort to protect the most vulnerable against a possible wave of COVID-19 as the flu season approaches.