It seems strange we'd opt for 3-4-5 shots given the benefit of mRNA was its ease of creation and modification.
The omicron surge is happening now so health authorities are looking at solutions and a third shot worked great, so a fourth one is an obvious (short term) solution. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work.
Best guess would be the strain specific boosters will come out of nowhere and suddenly saturate news coverage. But don’t quote me on that.
* presumably the pharma companies and national governments funding them. So a conspiracy, but not a QANON conspiracy.
That's a cynical take, but tbf don't the vaccines require logistical infrastructure that those parts of the world don't have? Other vaccines like j&j are perhaps more appropriate for that reason.
There's nothing quiet about it - Moderna has already publicly announced[1] that they're nearly ready to take their Omicron booster to clinical trials.
1. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-pfizer-omicron-va...
I doubt there's a lot of utility to boosting a 4th time with anything unless you're immunocompromised in some way.
And by the time we start vaccinating for Omicron it'll likely be too late and we'll be onto the next variant which the Omicron booster will only partially cross react with.
But the vaccines have largely done their job, the boosted mature T-cell response is what is going to be saving lives and keeping people out of the hospitals. And the virus probably can't mutate enough to ever escape from T-cells.