What We Know About The New COVID-19 Strain: XBB.1.5.
How Does The Vaccine Play A Role In XBB.1.5?
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Currently, only 15 percent of eligible individuals have received their boosters. Experts urge eligible individuals who have not yet received their bivalent booster to get it.
What is a bivalent booster? The earlier vaccines only protected against the original strain of COVID-19. The bivalent booster protects against the original strain, plus omicron and its variants.
The current bivalent vaccine was designed to offer protection against the omicron variant BA.5, according to the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While XBB.1.5 is derived from a different variant – BA.2. – experts still believe the bivalent vaccine can provide some protection against XBB.1.5. It is not recommended that you skip the current bivalent vaccine and wait for a newer one to be created.
