Updated COVID-19 vaccines still roughly halve hospitalisation, with no new safety signal

The edition in brief

A systematic review of 155 studies published between August 2025 and June 2026 found updated COVID-19 vaccines associated with 53% lower risk of hospitalisation in adults 65 and over in the 2025–26 season, 58% fewer emergency visits after maternal vaccination, 50–54% fewer infant hospital contacts in the first two months of life, and 76% fewer paediatric emergency visits in children aged 9 months to 4 years. No new safety signals were found, including for myocarditis under extended dosing intervals. A companion review of 75 RSV studies found vaccination in older adults associated with 83% lower RSV hospitalisation, with some evidence that protection is lower in the second season; nirsevimab effectiveness in infants ranged from 64% to 93%, and one case series raised a possible Guillain-Barré signal in the 42 days after vaccination. A meta-analysis of 34 machine-learning sepsis prediction studies reported a pooled AUROC of 0.91, but with a prediction interval down to 0.66, heavy reuse of the same public ICU datasets and little prospective testing. The FDA recorded a supplement to a generic itraconazole application; the record gives no clinical detail and it does not change prescribing.