NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 14 – The World Health Organization (WHO) has established a Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC) to review and assess the public health implications of emerging Variants of Concern (VOCs)on the performance of the COVID-19 vaccine.
This will provide recommendations to WHO on COVID-19 vaccine composition, as needed.
In the context of the circulation of Omicron variant, the advisory group urges broader access globally to current COVID-19 vaccines for primary series and booster doses, in the hope that this also mitigates the emergence and impact of new VOCs.
The advisory group is considering the strain composition of COVID-19 vaccines, and encourages vaccine developers to gather data on a small scale on the breadth and magnitude of immune response.
The data would then be considered in a broader decision-making framework on vaccine composition by the advisory group.
Since its emergence, COVID 19 has continued to evolve and WHO has designated five variants of Concern to date – namely Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron – due to their impact on transmission, disease severity, or capacity for immune escape.
While the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the world, the evolution of COVID 19 is expected to continue and Omicron is unlikely to be the last variant of concern.
The TAG-CO-VAC considers that COVID-19 vaccines that have high impact on prevention of infection and transmission, in addition to the prevention of severe disease and death, are needed and should be developed.
Until such vaccines are available, and as the COVID 19 virus evolves, the composition of current vaccines may need to be updated, to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines continue to provide WHO-recommended levels of protection against infection and diseases by VOCs including Omicron and future variants.
The circulation also notes that TAG-CO-VAC will continue to assess evidence on the predominant circulating VOC(s) with respect to properties of transmission, clinical severity (virulence), genetic, antigenic and phenotype characteristics of the VOC, including capacity for immune escape and assessments of vaccine effectiveness and impact, and information provided by manufacturers.
