COVID-19 Vaccines Targeting New Variants for 2024-2025 Season

Robert Walker, MD, senior vice president, chief medical officer, and interim head of research and development at Novavax, explains that the COVID-19 pandemic has entered a new phase, with a different family of the virus, the JN.1 lineage, now circulating in the US. Similar to the annual process for updating influenza vaccines, new COVID-19 vaccines have been developed to target this emerging strain. However, Walker notes that vaccination rates have declined, with only 21 to 22% of people receiving the shots last season. He attributes this to vaccine hesitancy, as some are tired of the pandemic or misinformed about the vaccines' safety and effectiveness. Walker emphasizes the importance of getting the updated formulation to provide optimal protection, not just for individual health, but also to safeguard vulnerable members of the community.

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Q: What makes the 2024-2025 COVID-19 season different from the previous years, specifically for virus variants and public health impact?

Robert Walker: Well, I think the thing that makes the season particularly different is that there's a different family of COVID-19 virus that's currently circulating in the US. Last year, we talked about the XBB or XBB 1.5 lineage, and this year, we're talking about JN.1, so the new variants circulating. I kind of liken it to influenza seasons. Each year we update the influenza vaccine to match the circulating strains, and a very similar process is taking place now for the COVID vaccine, and so new new vaccines are being released, will be released, that are targeting this new family called the JN.1 lineage. I guess the other important difference you could say is that fewer and fewer people seem to be choosing to get vaccinated. Last year for 2023-2024, the numbers that have been cited are around 21% and 22% of people were vaccinated, which is lower than it had been in previous years, and we would, hopefully this season, we can do better than that through all our combined efforts to get people to understand how important it is to get vaccinated, but I think we are up against even more challenges that lead to vaccine hesitancy and and people just not really making use of a very important public health tool that will help protect them, their families, and our communities.

Q: The FDA granted emergency use authorization updated mRNA vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna TX. How do these vaccines differ from previous versions, and are there any new adverse events that pharmacists or patients should be aware of?

Robert Walker: Well, of course, our company, Novavax, we we make a protein based COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer and Moderna, as you pointed out, make an mRNA vaccine. All of the vaccines that will be available for this season are targeting the JN.1 lineage. So that's the main difference. I mean, they're updated in terms of the formulation to to target not last year's main circulating strain, but this year, this season's, and I will just add in terms of safety, that COVID-19 vaccines have accumulated a very large safety experience since 2020-2021, and they continue to be extremely safe and effective, and I think most people should feel confident in the performance of these vaccines and recognizing that they are probably among the safest interventions that are available today.

Q: What is the importance of individuals getting vaccinated with the updated vaccines, even if they were already vaccinated with a previous one?

Robert Walker: Having been immunized with or vaccinated with a previous formulation of the COVID-19 vaccine may offer some small level of protection, but it really in order to be optimally protected, it's important to be vaccinated with the formulation that is targeting the strains that are currently circulating or anticipated to circulate in the coming season. So the main reason to get vaccinated this season is so that you have received the best possible match to the strains that you may otherwise are likely to be infected with, and the only way to do that is to get the updated formulation.

Q: What are the primary factors contributing to the decline in vaccination rates this year?

Robert Walker: I think we're facing many challenges on the vaccine hesitancy front. People who are, for whatever reason, choosing not to get vaccinated, and it could be because they're just frankly tired and want to move on with their lives, and they would just want to get past the COVID-19 pandemic and endemic phase. It may be that they are basing decisions on inadequate information or information that's frankly just wrong. A multitude of reasons go into this, but our job, of course, is to help people understand the importance of getting vaccinated and try to call attention to this as best as we can because it's in an individual's best interest to be protected. It's important for the other family members, so they don't spread the virus to their loved ones, and it's it's important for our communities because we want to make sure that people who are susceptible to really bad forms of the illness, might wind up in the hospital or in the intensive care unit on a ventilator. We want to we want to make sure that those vulnerable people in our communities are protected, and the best way we do that is by protecting ourselves and reducing the opportunity for the virus to spread.