evidence: As the updated COVID vaccines roll out around the country, one more competitor has joined the mix. In early October the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized a new booster shot made by the company Novavax. Like the mRNA-based Pfizer and Moderna shots, it targets a SARS-CoV-2 variant, XBB.1.5, which is a descendant of Omicron. It is the first protein vaccine to appear in more than a year, which some public health experts say is encouraging news for people who are hesitant the mRNA vaccines that have been widely used throughout the pandemic. [...] Unlike Moderna’s and Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines, which contain modified viral genetic material that the body’s own cellular machinery uses to make viral proteins that elicit an immune response, Novavax relies on a more traditional approach in which proteins resembling those in SARS-CoV-2 are injected directly into the body. This protein-based method has been used for more than 30 years in other vaccines, such as the hepatitis B vaccine. The company Novavax produces the protein in moth cells, which grow more quickly than mammalian cells.