After months of back and forth, the FDA has officially approved and given emergency use authorization for this year’s newly formulated COVID vaccines, and doses are expected to start shipping in the next few days,

“Vaccination continues to be the cornerstone of COVID-19 prevention,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a statement.

The announcement comes as children head back to school in the middle of a COVID wave, though respiratory virus season is just around the corner. Since last year, vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer and Moderna, have taken the approach used for influenza vaccination, developing a new shot each year based on the strains of the virus that are spreading and causing the most severe illness.

Last year’s COVID shot was approved and authorized by the FDA in early September, updated to include a monovalent component corresponding to the XBB.1.5 variant of Omicron. This June, the FDA advised manufacturers to create the new vaccine based on the JN.1 strain, and have further advised now that the preferred strain for formulating the new vaccine is the KP.2 sub-strain, one of the FLiRT variants.

The challenge now, doctors say, is to convince a COVID-weary public to take the time to get vaccinated.

“Given waning immunity of the population… we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants,” Marks said.

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