In September 29, 2021 the WHO established the Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC), as an “independent” group, yet the Chair and Vice-Chair are Influenza specialists from Australia (Peter Doherty Institute) and USA (CDC) respectively, who already “collaborate” with the WHO. There are other members. [1]
The purpose of the group is to assesses the impact of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOC) on the current COVID-19 vaccines and determine whether changes to vaccine antigen composition is needed for the upcoming seasonal COVID-19 vaccine – just as is done for influenza vaccines because rapidly mutating viruses always posses the capacity for immune escape! The intent is to achieve “minimally acceptable” levels of “protection of persons at at high ongoing risk of COVID-19 such as healthcare workers and for reactive use in outbreak settings with rapid onset of immunity.” [2, 3, 4] WHO has the entire system set up for annual COVID-19 vaccination – from virus to vaccine to implementation – into the mRNA Platform.
On January 11, 2022 the first of many reports was released by TAG-CO-VAC, called “for the development of COVID-19 vaccines that have high impact on prevention of infection and transmission, in addition to protection against severe disease and death.” [4]
- monovalent vaccine
- multivalent vaccine
- pan SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
March 8, 2022 report continue to review data “to optimize vaccine mediated protection against prevalent circulating Variants of Concern” [4]
In June 2022 (before the call for members) the WHO claimed that “TAG-CO-VAC published an interim statement highlighting that index virus-based vaccines continued to confer high levels of protection against severe disease caused by all SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs), including Omicron.”
On September 4, 2022 the WHO put out a call for experts to serve as Members on the WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC), it appears there will be annual changes to the committee?
On April 26, 2024 TAG-CO-VAC made advised the use of a monovalent JN.1 lineage as the antigen in 2024-25 formulations of COVID-19 vaccines. On May 31, 2024 Moderna filed FDA Application for the JN.1 targeted Spikevax 2024-2025 COVID-19 Vaccine “formula”, following WHO recommentations.