The COVID variant that now accounts for almost every case in NSW

Experts are urging Australians needing a COVID-19 booster to get one ahead of a potential winter wave, warning a monovalent vaccine targeting the dominant JN.1 variant is unlikely to be ready in time for the colder months.

The World Health Organisation reported last week that nearly all circulating COVID variants were derived from JN.1, and recommended future vaccine formulations should target the variant that has rapidly displaced all others since it was first declared a variant of interest in December.

“It becomes more like the annual flu shot where we try and build our vaccines to be closest to the circulating strains,” Bennett said. “You just want to try and get the greatest effectiveness you can from your vaccines – particularly for people who are really still relying on vaccine-induced immunity as their main protection.”

“I agree with the approach, we should change it over time … but I think sometimes the vaccine that’s available to you still does a pretty good job,” he said. “Just because one vaccine is the new beaut thing on the market, it doesn’t always turn out that it’s the one that reacts best to the thing that’s circulating in the future.”

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