EU drug agency says new COVID variants could develop this winter

Completely new COVID-19 variants could develop this winter, according to the European Medicines Agency, the European Union’s drug agency. “There might be a completely new variant emerging that we are not able to predict today,” EMA vaccines chief Marco Cavaleri said on Friday. The agency on Thursday approved vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna that are appropriate for the older BA 1 subvariant of omicron. A Pfizer version updated for the BA 4 and BA 5 strains, which are the predominant strain, are set to be authorized in mid-September.