- New variants of the coronavirus containing mutations could diminish the effectiveness of the vaccines.
- On Monday, the pharmaceutical company Moderna announced it is already working on a booster shot for its COVID-19 vaccine.
- Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines can be easily tweaked, so even if a variant were to evade the vaccines, the shots could be easily modified to target emerging mutations.
Moderna is already working on a booster shot to target the new variant detected in South Africa (the B.1.351 lineage), the company announced Monday.
Though the original two-dose regimen is expected to guard against new variants, the biotechnology company is testing an additional booster shot to determine whether it can produce more neutralizing antibody titers that protect against emerging variants.
There’s been growing concern that new variants containing mutations within the spike protein, the part of the coronavirus that latches onto our cells, could diminish the vaccines’ effectiveness.
The vaccines produce a broad immune response, so scientists expect the existing vaccines to provide a high degree of protection, even against variants with spike mutations.
Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines can be easily tweaked, so even if a variant were to evade the vaccines, the shots could be easily modified to target emerging mutations.
Source: healthline