The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended that everyone 6 months and older get an updated vaccination this fall against COVID-19 that is formulated to combat the most prevalent strains of the rapidly evolving virus that upended the world four years ago.
Vaccine upgrades rely on many sources of information about what the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease is doing in the human population. That data includes changes to its genetic makeup tracked in samples of the virus collected from more than 16 million patients around the world.
