According to clinical data released on Wednesday, the new Covid-19 booster shot produced a strong response against two fast-spreading omicron subvariants, which Moderna hopes to offer in August.
The health care professional is holding a vaccine.
Preliminary data from Moderna's bivalent Covid vaccine suggests it provides a "potent" immune response against the original coronaviruses strain and the omicron variant.
Moderna said that the bivalent booster caused a five-fold jump in the levels of omicron subvariant-specific neutralizing antibodies a month after it was given.
Moderna released data two weeks ago showing that the same booster protects against the original Omicron variant and the original Covid strain after a month.
The data suggests that the booster could offer lasting protection against the whole family of Omicron variant, despite the fact that the shot did not offer as strong protection.
The booster could be a turning point in the fight against Covid according to Paul Burton.
There is a new booster coming in the fall. The data will be submitted to regulators quickly, and the company will start supplying the booster in August.
More than one third of Covid cases last week were caused by BA.4 and BA.5 infections, up from 23% the week before that, according to data from the Centers. The two strains were discovered in South Africa earlier this year. Currently, the only shots available to protect against Covid infections are the ones created in the earlier days of the epidemic, but data suggests omicron is more successful at evading immunity than previous strains. Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax are working on booster shots. The company said it will submit data on the new shot to regulators in the coming weeks.
The original strain of Moderna's booster shot could be available late summer.
Experts say that we cannot boost our way out of the covidemic.
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