--- title: The Updated COVID-19 Shot Works on the Newest Variants description: A new study shows that the XBB vaccine can protect against several emerging variants. canonical: https://time.com/6342385/new-covid-vaccine-variants-xbb/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-12-07T14:57:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:42.562Z article:section: Health og:title: The Updated COVID-19 Shot Works on the Newest Variants og:description: A new study shows that the XBB vaccine can protect against several emerging variants. og:url: https://time.com/6342385/new-covid-vaccine-variants-xbb/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d3fccea33b00a34/698a42ebdb29872e9e2699d1/GettyImages-1674135313.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: New Corona vaccine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Updated COVID-19 Shot Works on the Newest Variants twitter:description: A new study shows that the XBB vaccine can protect against several emerging variants. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4d3fccea33b00a34/698a42ebdb29872e9e2699d1/GettyImages-1674135313.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Updated COVID-19 Shot Works on the Newest Variants > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Apologizes In Front of COVID-19 Inquiry Panel [Watch (HLS stream): Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Apologizes In Front of COVID-19 Inquiry Panel](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TWdGwYtD.m3u8) (4:43)  _Published 2023-12-06. The U.K’s COVID-19 Inquiry into the government’s response to the pandemic picked up again on Wednesday morning. The hearings for the initial stage of the investigation were heard in London in June. Today, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who served as the nation’s leader from 2019 to 2022, was sworn in to give evidence in front of the panel. Shortly into his opening statement, he said that he was sorry for the suffering experienced by COVID victims and their families._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Dec 7, 2023 2:57 PM UTC  A vial of the COVID-19 vaccine targeting XBB.1.5, made by Pfizer and BioNTech A vial of the COVID-19 vaccine targeting XBB.1.5, made by Pfizer and BioNTech Christophe Gateau/picture alliance—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Dec 7, 2023 2:57 PM UTC Every COVID-19 vaccine is a step behind the virus. In the time it takes companies to make the shot, SARS-CoV-2 is already busy mutating into different versions that can evade the immune response produced by it. But even though the [latest vaccine](https://time.com/6313497/new-covid-19-vaccine-booster/) targets XBB.1.5, a variant no longer dominant in the U.S., it seems to be doing a decent job at warding off some of the emerging variants. In a [study](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.26.568730v1) published on the preprint server bioRxiv, scientists led by Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Columbia University, report that the vaccine can generate strong antibodies that can neutralize not just XBB but variants such as HV.1, which now accounts for [31% of U.S. infections](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions), and HK.3, which contributes to [half of new infections](https://gisaid.org/) in Asia (and about 7% in the U.S.). The team analyzed blood samples from 60 people with different COVID-19 infection and vaccination histories, representing real-world scenarios. All had four to five doses of mRNA vaccines—most recently, the bivalent BA.4/5 vaccine that was recommended before the new XBB.1.5 shot. One group had never had COVID-19 and received the XBB.1.5 booster. Another group recently recovered from an XBB infection and did not receive the XBB booster. The final group had previously been infected with an Omicron variant and did not receive the XBB.1.5 booster. Blood samples from these volunteers were pitted against lab-based versions of SARS-CoV-2 virus variants: the original, BA.5, XBB.1.5, and EG.5.1 (a variant that spread widely this fall). The samples were also tested against four emerging subvariants: HV.1, HK.3, JD.1.1, and JN.1. ### More From TIME The results suggest that the new XBB.1.5 vaccine helps generate antibodies against variants that the vaccine wasn’t specifically designed to target—namely HV.1, HK.3, JD.1.1, and JN.1\. These antibody levels were 13 to 27 times higher in the blood of people who had never had COVID-19 but had an XBB.1.5 vaccine. They increased 10-fold among people with this new shot who had a prior Omicron infection. These responses were slightly lower than antibody levels generated against XBB.1.5,but still suggest that the latest vaccine can provide broader protection against a variety of variants. That’s encouraging news as the battle between vaccines and the virus continues this season, and new variants that first appeared in other parts of the world make their way to the U.S. These new data support the need for people stay up to date on their vaccines so they can continue to be protected against new versions of the virus. ## Transcript I thought I understand the feelings of these victims and their families and I am deeply sorry for the pain of the loss and the suffering of those victims and their families and grateful. I am to the hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers and many other public servants. Mm. people who walks of life to protect our country drive to Draper pandemic. I do hope that this inquiry will help to get the answers to the very difficult questions that we can do next time. He's alright we are asking for the avoidance of doubt and make it happen. So you can I haven't removed any walks apps from my but I'll give you everything good. I think you need we may have made mistakes. I think it. I didn't want to try to anticipate the discussion, which I'm sure we will get into about the timings of NPR's lockdowns. It inevitably we got something's wrong. I think we were doing our best to the other time when you give him the information how to find the whole time. I think we we did our level best. Well, that seems we should have done differently. Unquestionably but you know, I would I would struggle to to itemize to move before you not in in in in in in a hard Rocky take personal responsibility fee. Do you take responsibility for whatever my lady makes of the speed of the government's response in January February March of 2020 and the way in which the various moving parts of the government's the advisory committee is the Department's the agencies and so on responded. Do you take responsibility for the lockdown decisions whichever way they went and the timeliness of them? The manner in which patients were discharged from hospital into the castle actor. the explosion of the virus within the Residential Care Center the general speed at which the restrictions were released. the attack to help Heights game and then lastly in 2020 the decision not to introduce the circuit breaker in September or October what to introduce a test System earlier when the prevalence of the virus was lower for good or ill yesterday the rate of excess deaths in this country as I say, I think this is the statistics battery and I think that the every country struggled with a new plan and I think the the UK from the evidence that I have seen was well done the European table in the oldest even further down the road table if I have to answer why I think we faced particular Penguins, I would say it was Irrespective of of government action are we have a Coke and a we are in Europe that they don't help. You, see extremely well aware of the arguments that the long-term decisions and sells cheap Nativity in individually contributed to the number of excess. What do you say to that I say that I don't know but I'm aware of the documents made. What would I would say respectfully to people is that? they were very very difficult decisions and the issue of the timeliness of a blank times was clearly one that we considered. 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