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This fall, prepare for the latest round of COVID vaccine Whac-a-Mole. Like the old arcade game, no matter how many shots we get, the enemy always pops back up. But here’s why the new shot, recommended by FDA advisers last week, makes sense: It targets a new version of the virus, the FDA panel said.

It bolsters your body’s ever-growing defense system. And it’s a lot better than getting very sick or hospitalized. Last year’s shot isn’t holding up.



Protection against both infection and severe illness is waning. “Effectiveness has decreased, as the time since vaccination has increased — and as new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerge,” said biostatistician Danyu Lin of the University of North Carolina School of Global Public Health, who presented worrisome new data to the FDA advisory panel. The old vaccine’s effectiveness peaked one month after the shot, Lin’s team found.

After four weeks, the vaccines were 52.2% effective at preventing infection and 66.8% effective at preventing hospitalization.

After ten weeks, effectiveness at preventing infection decreased to 32.6% while effectiveness at preventing hospitalization decreased to 57.1%.

By comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that with the annual influenza shot , “during seasons when flu vaccine viruses are similar to circulating flu viruses, flu vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of having to go to the doctor with flu by 40% to 60%.” Last Wednesday, FDA’s advis ers, a panel of .

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