The Liberty Daily 
(The Epoch Times)—The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of vaccine advisers on May 28 recommended that the next round of COVID-19 vaccines target the XFG COVID-19 variant.
Eight of the nine members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee who voted during a meeting said that the next vaccines should be monovalent, or only include one antigen, and that the preferred antigen is XFG.
XFG variants, including XFG 1.1, are dominant in the United States, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The FDA has for years directed vaccine manufacturers to update their shots on an annual basis, to try to strengthen vaccine effectiveness.
The 2025–2026 versions of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna targeted LP.8.1, while Novavax’s targeted JN.1.
LP.8.1 and XFG are JN.1. sublineages.
FDA officials told advisers during the meeting that COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers are all prepared to produce an XFG vaccine if that was recommended.
The vaccines would be produced in the coming months and become available in the fall and winter, when respiratory illnesses are more prevalent.
The FDA in 2025 approved two vaccines from Moderna, one from Pfizer, and one from Novavax for many Americans. The CDC then instructed people to speak with health care professionals before getting vaccinated, in part due to concerns of side effects.
A federal judge blocked the CDC’s update, ruling that those and other changes to vaccine guidance were not done in the proper manner.
An appeal is pending.
