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We are no strangers to Omicron, the latest variant of the virus that causes COVID. But until recently, our vaccines haven’t caught up with the rapidly mutating SARS-CoV-2.
That’s about to change with the recent approval of an Omicron-specific vaccine, set to be used in Australia as a booster shot for adults. It’s already been approved in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Which Australians will get the new booster and when is unclear. But the booster, made by Moderna, is expected to protect against currently circulating versions of the virus, and possibly future ones. Pfizer also has an Omicron booster, which has been approved in the US.
Our COVID vaccines are also changing in other ways. Researchers are working on vaccines to be delivered as a patch or via the nose, as well as formulations that are more stable at room temperature or which provide better protection at the tiniest of doses, although not all of the 120 or so potential COVID vaccines in development will make it through clinical trials.
Paul Griffin from the University of Queensland is the lead investigator on several COVID vaccine studies. Today, he explains what to expect from the next generation of vaccines.
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Anna Evangeli
Deputy Health Editor
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Paul Griffin, The University of Queensland
New boosters protect against the original COVID strain as well as Omicron. In future, we might see variant-proof vaccines or those delivered in the nose or mouth.
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Ben Phillips, Australian National University
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Leonora Risse, RMIT University
Gender equality was at the forefront of all discussions at the government’s jobs summit - but it was also a reminder there is still a long way to go.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The jobs and skills summit, which concluded on Friday, has been a highly-managed exercise by the Albanese government in maximising policy and political productivity.
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Emily Roycroft, Australian National University
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Politics + Society
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Robert Horvath, La Trobe University
For over a decade, Putin has been systematically destroying Gorbachev’s historic achievements.
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Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato; Claire Breen, University of Waikato
Major public media reform in New Zealand is coming at the same time as trust in government and media declines. The proposed new law needs to make political and editorial independence a top priority.
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Health + Medicine
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Nancy Baxter, The University of Melbourne; C Raina MacIntyre, UNSW Sydney
With the goal of ‘business as usual’, politicians will continue to reduce COVID protections without immediate consequence while transmission is low. But then the next wave will come.
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Mary Steen, University of South Australia
Soon after a baby is born, it’s becoming more common these days for the father or non-birthing parent to be encouraged to place the newborn directly on their chest.
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Science + Technology
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Curtis Ho, University of Tasmania
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Jessica Suzanne Dudley, Macquarie University; Camilla Whittington, University of Sydney
Seahorse fathers use different muscles and hormones to give birth than female animals.
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Environment + Energy
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Chandra Salgado Kent, Edith Cowan University
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Arts + Culture
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Sarah Gleeson-White, University of Sydney
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Emma Maguire, James Cook University
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Business + Economy
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Justine Nolan, UNSW Sydney
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