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News of Moderna’s weakened vaccine response to the South African (B.1.351) strain of coronavirus is raising more alarm bells amid the ongoing pandemic.
Experts have been monitoring the strain closely because it may be resistant to the vaccine. Although it has not yet been detected in the United States, the country should prepare for its potential spread, experts warn.
Dr Anthony Fauci said so on CBS on Sunday, and Moderna (MRNA) CEO Stéphane Bancel told Yahoo Finance on Monday that Fauci agreed with the need for the company to study the strain.
“This has all been decided in recent days,” Bancel said.
“We met the team several times between the weekends, chatted with the board and decided it was the safe thing to do – which Dr Fauci confirmed to me yesterday as I spoke. with him, ”added Bancel.
This concern adds to the list of questions about vaccines, including their long-term sustainability.
“No one … knows how long the protection will last,” Bancel said, noting that the concern is greater for the elderly.
“I would definitely tell people, get vaccinated, you need to be protected now,” he added.
In the meantime, Moderna plans to start the booster studies in March – marking a year since the start of the Phase 1 trials – then in the summer – between June and August – to begin with participants in Phase 3 from last year. .
“Since it’s only a single dose, we’ll get the data faster,” Bancel said.
As vaccinations struggle to ramp up across the country, Bancel is watching next fall, when respiratory viruses start to spread.
“The thing we want to be ready for is fall,” he said. “We no longer have to go through a terrible winter like the one we are going through now.
For this to happen, all vaccinations must be done before fall so that booster shots can start by winter – after one year. The hope, Bancel said, is that the booster shots will be in lower doses in order to produce a larger supply. Currently, the two-dose vaccine requires 100 micrograms to be effective.
“If a dose was 50 or 25 micrograms, which is possible because your immune system is already prepared… you could potentially get up to eight times as much product as a boost,” Bancel said.
Questions remain
Dr Paul Offit, a senior vaccine expert and pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), told Yahoo Finance on Monday that there was still a lot to learn about Moderna news – like what is precisely the level of antibody production, and B- production of T cells and lymphocytes. All three components are part of the vaccine’s ability to fight the virus, so more data from Moderna’s study is needed.
But in the meantime, there is a need for two booster studies like Moderna is doing, one designed to target the strain and the other for a general booster, Offit said.
Melissa Van Kherkove of the World Health Organization told a briefing on Monday that the emergence of variants means that even more attention should be paid to mitigation measures in the absence of widespread vaccinations.
“Everything we learn about these variants does not change our approach to controlling COVID. It will take longer than we all want for vaccines to have the impact they will have, ”she said.
Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, added that the virus will continue to be transmitted “probably for a very long time”.
To date, smallpox is the only disease to be eradicated, with polio and measles an ongoing struggle.
“I don’t think we should start setting the elimination or eradication of this virus as the bar for success. The bar for success is to reduce the ability of this virus to kill, to put people in hospitals, to destroy our economic (and) social lives, ”said Ryan.
“We have to get to a point where we control the virus,” he said.
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