Wednesday's move by the Food and Drug Administration updates the recipe of shots made by Pfizer and rival Moderna that already have saved millions of lives.
The hope is that the modified boosters will blunt yet another winter surge.
"This provides an opportunity for people, once they get boosted with the vaccine, to generate antibodies that can neutralize both original variants and the omicron variants, but also the variants in between," said Pfizer vaccine chief Annaliesa Anderson.
She added: "It really provides the broadest opportunity for protection against COVID-19."
Until now, the COVID-19 vaccines given in the U.S. have targeted the original coronavirus even though the virus has mutated wildly during the pandemic.
The new boosters are half that original recipe and half protection against the newest omicron version.
Anderson added "By adapting the vaccine as the virus adapts, one important thing that it helps us to do is stay ahead of the vaccine, because at some point there may be new variants for which our antibody responses are not enough to prevent severe disease."
Se went on to say "And so that's why we're constantly looking to see how we can make sure that the COVID vaccines that we're providing can be the, provide the largest potential for preventing severe disease."
