CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. officials plan to use data gathered from people who have already been vaccinated against COVID-19 as well as data from ongoing clinical trials to determine when and whether current COVID-19 vaccines need to be updated to address viral variants.
Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a hearing on Wednesday his agency has already started getting data on vaccine safety from people who have been vaccinated. Marks said he expects data on the ongoing effectiveness of the vaccines in the next few months.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; additional reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru, Editing by Franklin Paul)