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An FDA advisory committee voted unanimously, 16-0, Wednesday to recommend that the COVID-19 vaccines for the 2024-2025 season target the JN.1 strain of the virus.

"From my review of the data, it appeared that the newer variants that are appearing, KP.2, KP.3, and maybe some others that are coming up, have the potential for immunogenicity from a JN.1 vaccine to cover those variants seems to be pretty good," said Archana Chatterjee, MD, PhD, of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago. "Antigenically they are close, and from the experience we had with [the] XBB [strain], it appears even with some variation, there's still reasonably good protection. So from that perspective, I would say that JN.1 is a reasonable strain to include."

Melinda Wharton, MD, MPH, of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, agreed. "We can't predict which variants are going to emerge over the coming months," she said. "It may very well not be any of the ones that we're talking about today, but they're likely to be related to JN.1. So having a vaccine that's the trunk of the tree rather than the branches makes sense to me." Head over to MedPage Today to read more about it.