New COVID-19 vaccines are now available: 10 key facts and statistics about these shots

September 17, 2023.Reading time 13 minutes.

We now have two new COVID-19 vaccines available for this year’s respiratory virus season, one from Pfizer and one from Moderna, which are expected to perform well against current variants. The FDA approved both vaccines this week, and the CDC recommended them for almost all Americans. A third option, from Novavax, may become available in the coming weeks as well.

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National numbers, September 17

September 17, 2023.Reading time 6 minutes.

For the second week in a row, available data suggest that the current COVID-19 surge may be turning around, or at least heading for a plateau. But there’s still a lot of coronavirus going around—and this will likely remain true through the winter respiratory virus season.

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New data on BA.2.86 suggest the fall booster may work well

September 10, 2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

Since BA.2.86 emerged a couple of weeks ago, scientists around the world have been racing to evaluate this variant. Several teams posted data in the last week, and the news is promising: while BA.2.86 does have an advantage over past variants, the lab findings suggest that vaccines (including the upcoming boosters) and past infections provide protection against it.

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Wastewater surveillance is crucial for tracking new variants, BA.2.86 shows us

September 3, 2023.Reading time 8 minutes.

This week, the health department in New York City, where I live, announced that they’d identified new variant BA.2.86 in the city’s wastewater. I covered the news for local outlet Gothamist/WNYC, and the story got me thinking about how important wastewater surveillance has become for tracking variants.

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National numbers, September 3

September 3, 2023.Reading time 5 minutes.

The late-summer COVID-19 surge is still in full swing, with all major metrics showing further increases in disease spread this week. BA.2.86 isn’t spreading widely yet but is worth continued surveillance.

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Variant Q&A: Why scientists are concerned about BA.2.86, and which questions they’re still investigating

August 27, 2023.Reading time 16 minutes.

Last week, I introduced you to BA.2.86, a new Omicron variant that’s garnered attention among COVID-19 experts due to its significant mutations. We’ve learned a lot about BA.2.86 since last Sunday, though there are many unanswered questions to be answered as more research is conducted.

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BA.2.86 is the latest variant to watch; send me your questions

August 20, 2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

Last week, several variant experts that I follow on Twitter started posting about a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, first detected in Israel. They initially called it Omicron BA.X while waiting for more details to emerge about the sequence; it’s now been named BA.2.86.

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National numbers, August 20

August 20, 2023.Reading time 5 minutes.

The summer COVID-19 surge continues. While wastewater surveillance data suggest that transmission trends may be turning around in some places, the virus is largely still increasing across the U.S. New variants are on the horizon, too.

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