Keeping COVID-19 in check likely to require periodic boosters

New research from scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that updated booster shots will be important for shoring up population immunity as new variants emerge – but there’s a caveat. Their research, published April 3 in Nature, shows that vaccinating people against the original strain of the virus and then boosting with a shot that targets a new variant can elicit a broad antibody response capable of neutralizing a wide array of variants, including ones that have not yet emerged. The trick is to target a variant for the booster that is so different from the original strain of the virus that it triggers the maturation of new and diverse antibody-producing cells.