Is Moderna developing a booster shot? Can Moderna stop the South Africa variant?

Moderna has started trials of a third COVID-19 vaccine that aims to take widely-spread variants, the company said on Friday.

What is happening?

Moderna has started testing three variations of a booster shot among 60 participants, the company said.

Moderna said it would start with a variant-specific vaccine, which would be given at a smaller dose than the original vaccine. This will be done to make sure the vaccine works on its own.

• This new shot will require emergency use authorization from the United States Food and Drug Administration before it is released to the public.

The company said it would then study a combination of the original vaccine – those two doses that people began to receive – mixed with the new variant of the vaccine.

Finally, the company will study the variant-specific vaccine, but at a higher volume. Again, this will be done to ensure that the Moderna variant boost can work on its own and be safely distributed to people.

Moderna said, “Out of caution, Moderna is pursuing a clinical development strategy against these emerging variants.”

The context

Moderna said in January that he would work on upgrading the COVID-19 vaccine to combat variants of the coronavirus so that they don’t become more dominant in the United States, as I wrote for Deseret News. Moderna said in February that it would start conducting its new trials.