Vaccine makers rush to stay ahead of new COVID-19 variants: NPR

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A gas station attendant stands next to a newspaper headline in Pretoria, South Africa on Saturday. The new omicron variant has spread from South Africa to parts of Europe and as far as Hong Kong.

Denis Farrell / AP


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Denis Farrell / AP


A gas station attendant stands next to a newspaper headline in Pretoria, South Africa on Saturday. The new omicron variant has spread from South Africa to parts of Europe and as far as Hong Kong.

Denis Farrell / AP

A new strain of COVID-19 first discovered in South Africa was declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organization on Friday. Here’s how the pharmaceutical industry plans to tackle the latest curvature of coronaviruses.

Vaccine makers are already focusing their efforts on tackling the new variant: testing higher doses of boosters, designing new boosters that anticipate strain mutations, and developing omicron-specific boosters.

In a statement sent to NPR, Moderna said she was working on a comprehensive strategy to predict variants of concern since early 2021. One approach is to double the current recall from 50 to 100 micrograms. Second, the vaccine manufacturer studied two booster vaccines that are designed to anticipate mutations like those found in the omicron variant. The company also said it will step up efforts to create a booster candidate that specifically targets omicron.

“From the start, we have said that as we seek to defeat the pandemic, it is imperative that we be proactive as the virus evolves,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel. “Mutations in the Omicron variant are cause for concern and for the past several days we have been working to execute our strategy as quickly as possible to combat this variant.”

Pfizer and BioNTech told Reuters that it expects more data on the omicron variant to be collected within two weeks. This information will help determine whether or not they need to change their current vaccine. Pfizer and BioNTech said a vaccine designed for the omicron variant, if needed, could be ready to ship in about 100 days.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement to NPR that it is also already testing the effectiveness of its vaccine against the new variant.

The omicron variant was first reported to the WHO on Nov. 24, the WHO said. Preliminary evidence indicates that the variant poses an increased risk of reinfection due to the large number of mutations. Until recently, cases in South Africa were mostly from the delta variant, an earlier strain that has been pushing health systems to their limits since early summer. But omicron infections have increased in recent weeks, WHO reported.

More worryingly, cases of omicron have emerged across the world. Al Jazeera reported that cases have been confirmed in the UK, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong.

News of the fast-spreading variant has led to a new set of air travel restrictions South Africa and seven other countries, implemented by President Joe biden, which will come into effect on Monday. The President made the announcement the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel times of the year.

Unlike last year, when millions of people traveled against the advice of health experts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the President’s Chief Medical Advisor, Dr.Anthony Fauci, more or less tolerated Thanksgiving meetings for vaccinated Americans. And, according to a American Automobile Association Travel forecast, more than 53 million people were due to travel for Thanksgiving – an 18% jump from last year – including more than 4 million by air.

From Friday, the CDC said that no case of the omicron variant had been identified in the United States. However, Fauci said on Saturday that he wouldn’t be surprised if the variant was already here.

“We haven’t detected it yet, but when you have a virus that shows that degree of transmissibility and you already have cases related to the trips they noted to Israel and Belgium and other places… c ‘is almost invariably will end up going pretty much everywhere, “he said. said in an interview on the Today spectacle.

As Americans prepare to move from one busy holiday to another, the CDC predicts that coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths will increase over the next four weeks. More than 776,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19 to date, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, and the country is projected exceed 800,000 dead by Christmas.

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