A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel on Thursday recommended updating COVID-19 jabs this fall to target the “XFG variant.”
Eight out of nine panel members voted in favor of the recommendation, while one abstained.
FDA advisory panel back to its old ways?
Eight out of nine panel members voted in favor of the recommendation, while one abstained.
“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID dashboard, new data is currently unavailable…”
"We can't make a… pic.twitter.com/IiIGQr5LBM
— Jefferey Jaxen (@JeffereyJaxen) May 29, 2026
NBC News has more:
The recommendation — from the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee — is meant to help vaccine makers prepare shots for the fall and winter, when Covid infections typically rise.
Thursday’s meeting was the agency’s first since FDA Commissioner Marty Makary resigned. (His resignation did not play a role; the meeting was already on the calendar before he resigned.) Makary drew criticism last year after the agency imposed stricter requirements on who could get Covid shots.
According to wastewaterSCAN data, Covid activity is at a “medium” level across most of the United States. But newer variants continue to evolve in ways that may help them evade immunity from prior infection or vaccination.
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The XFG variant is also nicknamed “stratus.”
Hello, Stratus.
An FDA advisory panel recommends updating this fall’s Covid shots to target the XFG variant, a fast-growing strain. https://t.co/9gKRQOt1CG
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 28, 2026
“We can’t make a recommendation if we don’t have data, and that’s one of my great concerns,” said Anna Durbin, a member of the FDA’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), according to Reuters.
The U.S. FDA's advisory panel will vote on Thursday on whether COVID-19 vaccines for the 2026-2027 immunization campaign should target the dominant XFG variant, after staff members raised concerns about limited data on currently circulating strains. https://t.co/pBVrhMc4mk
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) May 28, 2026
Reuters noted:
She called for strengthening real-time surveillance infrastructure and suggested the committee consider convening more than once a year.
The VRBPAC has not been changed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has undercut the use of COVID and other vaccines in the U.S., but the surveillance of the disease has been scaled back as part of funding cuts.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID dashboard, new data is currently unavailable due to low sequencing submissions. The most recent update, now a month old, showed XFG strains accounted for more than half of U.S. cases over the four weeks ended April 11.
Besides, the CDC’s advisory panel vote to drop recommendations for childhood vaccines, including the COVID shot, has affected their use. A court has temporarily stayed that decision.
