Dozens of people get one third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States, this time with minor changes to a version of the virus with mutations
Vaccines currently available in the United States provide excellent protection. But new studies of experimental updates to the vaccines from Modern Y Pfizer they are a first step towards an alternative if the virus becomes resistant to current vaccines.
“You have to get ahead of the virus,” said Dr. Nadine Rouphael of Emory University, who is helping lead the study of the new version of Moderna. “We know what it’s like to be behind the virus.”
It is not clear whether the protection offered by vaccines will be diluted, requiring new vaccines, but “realistically, we just want COVID to catch a cold.”
Viruses are constantly evolving, and there is an easier-spreading variant that was initially discovered in Britain. Fortunately, it can be prevented with vaccines.
But It is feared that the first generation of vaccines will not be as effective against another variant that emerged in South AfricaAll laboratories that produced vaccines are looking for ways to fight the B.1.351 virus if necessary. Experimental doses of Moderna and Pfizer are now being tested.
Emory University, outside of Atlanta, asked people enrolled in the first vaccine studies to help with this update.
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Volunteer Cole Smith said he didn’t need to think too much about it.
“The first was a huge success and millions of people are being vaccinated,” Smith told the Associated Press. “If we’re helping people with the former, why not volunteer with this new vaccine?”
Researchers from Emory and three other medical centers are also recruiting volunteers who have not received vaccines against the virus. COVID-19
The goal is not just to determine whether the third dose of Moderna is effective against the new variant of the virus. It’s also about checking whether two doses of the new vaccine are enough. Or one of any vaccine. Or if you can combine the two vaccines into one.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized Pfizer and its partner, the German laboratory BioNTech, to conduct similar experiments with their vaccine.
Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, like most vaccines in use around the world, train the body to recognize protein S from the outer shell of the coronavirus.
Mutations in viruses are common, but if too many are produced, they can escape an immune system designed to detect intruders.
The good news is that it is fairly easy to update the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
The studies released this month involve just a few hundred people, compared to the thousands used to test the original vaccines.