A health worker prepares a dose for the Moderna Inc. Covid-19 vaccination at the Pacheco vaccine center in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.Moderna announced Tuesday that its Covid-19 vaccine proved promising in a laboratory setting against coronavirus variants. This includes the highly contagious Delta variant, which was first identified in India.Moderna reports that the two-dose mRNA vaccination produced neutralizing antibodies against both delta and beta variants.According to the company, the results were based upon the blood serum of eight participants a week after receiving the second dose. Data have not yet been peer-reviewed. Although the results are promising, they may not be representative of how vaccines perform in real-world situations against variants.After the announcement of its lab results, Moderna shares surged more than 6% intraday trading.Stephane Bancel, Moderna CEO, stated in a press release that "We are committed to studying new variants and generating data. We will share it as soon as it becomes available." These new data are encouraging, and they reinforce our belief in the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine's ability to protect against newly discovered variants.Moderna's update follows World Health Organization officials who urged fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks, practice social distance and continue other pandemic safety precautions as the spread of delta continues rapidly around the globe.Moderna also announced that its vaccine is authorized for use in India on the same day. The large Indian outbreak was believed to have been caused by the delta variant.The dominant strain of the disease, Delta, is now present in at least 92 countries. This includes the United States. The prevalence of the strain in the United States is increasing by about two per cent every two weeks.WHO officials stated Friday that they asked fully vaccinated individuals to "play it safe" as a large part of the world is still unvaccinated. Highly contagious variants like delta are spreading rapidly in many countries and causing outbreaks.These comments are a departure for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They have previously stated that fully vaccinated Americans can wear masks in almost any setting."People can't feel secure just because they took the two doses. They still need protection," Dr. Mariangela SIMAO, WHO assistant director general for access to medicines, and health products said at a news briefing.Moderna, Pfizer BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson have proven to be extremely effective in preventing Covid.Some vaccine variants, such as delta, are slightly less effective. WHO officials expressed concern that vaccinated people could be part of transmission chains.
