On Wednesday August 31, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized new updated bivalent Covid-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer that targets two omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.

“These new bivalent vaccines carry instructions to help our cells make defenses against two strains of the virus that causes Covid-19. The shots direct cells to make antibodies that bind to certain parts of the spike proteins from both the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, which share an identical spike,” CNN Health explains.

Dr. Gregory Poland,who leads the vaccine research group at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told CNN “These are vaccines that are made, manufactured and delivered identically to the Covid mRNA vaccines that most of us have already gotten. In a sense, you’ve just changed the blueprints.”

Dr. William Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, maker of one of the updated bivalent vaccine, told CNN “The total mRNA content — the business part of the vaccine — that leads to the immune response is the same amount.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s vaccine advisory group is reportedly considering FDA recommendation and its widely accepted approval from the group.

After approval from the CDC director, the new updated bivalent booster is expected to be available for people 18 years and older, CNN writes.

Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told CNN “We want to make sure that adults and the adolescents covered by this authorization are able to get the most up-to-date version of a booster vaccine, and that’s why we are no longer authorizing the monovalent — the original — booster for administration as a booster dose to those populations. … If you’ve not yet received a booster dose, or it’s been several months since your last booster dose, now’s the time to consider getting one. “