White House to hold summit on next-gen COVID-19 vaccines

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

According to Stat News, the White House wants to speed up the development of next- generation COVID-19 vaccines. Future vaccines should be able to protect against infections with and transmission of the virus, not just illness and death.

Pfizer and Moderna representatives will be at a White House summit on Tuesday to discuss next steps. It is not clear if President Biden will take part.

The current COVID-19 vaccine works well to keep people from getting seriously ill or dying from it. The effectiveness of the vaccines has been affected by the new variant of the virus. The Food and Drug Administration is working with pharmaceutical companies to develop new vaccine boosters.

It isn't the best approach to vaccine development. The White House is looking at two different approaches for next- generation vaccines. The first is a vaccine that blocks the virus from entering the body. The second option is to create a vaccine that targets the bits of the virus that are shared between different strains. The vaccine developers have been struggling for years to create a universal flu vaccine.

It will be a challenge to get the investment necessary to move the next set of vaccines. The White House is having a hard time finding funding for the response. Efforts to provide more COVID-19 aid funding have been blocked by Republican legislators.

Without new approaches to vaccine, public health efforts could be stuck playing catch up with the virus, which is still killing over 400 people a day in the US

The virus is constantly evolving. We are having to change with it. We really need a breakthrough over time.