Britain is the first country in the world to approve Moderna’s bivalent vaccine targeting two different COVID-19 variants—the original strain as well as Omicron. The New York Times has the story, noting: “ In clinical trials, the vaccine . . . generated a good immune response to these two variants, as well as the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants in adults.”

But Britain is not joining the United States, France, Israel, and Canada in procuring Evusheld, the long-acting antibody combination of tixagevimab and cilgavimab, due to what regulators are calling “insufficient data” that the drug will be effective against the currently circulating Omicron strains, the BMJ reports. “The government said that the decision was based on independent clinical advice from Rapid C-19—a multiagency initiative including NHS England, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the National Institute for Health Research, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), as well as other health bodies from Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.”