Existing vaccines are likely to be significantly less effective against the #OmicronVarient, Moderna’s chief executive has predicted, sounding fresh alarm bells in the financial markets.
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telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph
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🔓Report by @sneweyy
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph
Stéphane Bancel expects a “material drop” in the effectiveness of vaccines against the variant because of the high number of mutations in the spike protein, which the virus uses to latch on to human cells.
(C: Scott Eisen)
(C: Scott Eisen)
Of the 50 mutations detected in omicron, 32 are in the spike protein – which the current crop of vaccines target to boost the body’s immune system.
“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level... we had with [the] delta [variant],” Mr Bancel said.
But, while drug companies including Moderna and Pfizer are already working on omicron-specific vaccines, he warned that it could be months before big pharma can produce these at scale.
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…
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