Modern predicts less efficacy of current omicron vaccines

The chief executive of the American laboratory Moderna, which manufactures one of the Covid vaccines based on the most modern mRNA platform, said that existing products should be less effective against the new omicron variant than against delta.

The assessment is based on the same signals that scientists have already raised: the high number of omicron mutations in the S protein (from spike, or spike), used by Sars-Cov-2 to enter human cells.

It is based on the genetic sequence of the coronavirus that immunizers are made, and if the mutant is very different from previous variants, there is the potential for it to escape the body’s defenses.

The strain’s rapid spread in southern African countries also suggests that existing vaccines are not as effective, Moderna’s Stéphane Bancel told the British newspaper Financial Times.

“I think there will be a substantial drop [de eficácia]. I don’t know how much, as we have to wait for the data. But all the scientists I spoke to were in line with ‘This is not looking good,'” he said.

According to the French executive, the results of tests on the effectiveness of the current immunizers should still take two weeks. He also said that an adaptation of the vaccine would take a few months — the same prediction made by BioNTech, which developed with Pfizer the other mRNA vaccine.

Once developed, they should have their approval process accelerated in Europe, said on Tuesday (30) the director of the EMA (regulatory agency), Emer Cooke, in a hearing at the European Parliament’s health committee.

“We know viruses mutate and we’re prepared,” he said, citing expressway regulations passed earlier this year.

Cooke stressed, however, that it is still too early to say whether it will be necessary to change the vaccine to combat omicrons.

The European agency also hopes to authorize this month a new vaccine against Covid, produced by Novavax, and should publish recommendations on possible combinations between different immunizers in the booster doses, which are being accelerated in Europe.

Despite the many doubts still open about omicron, health authorities have emphasized that the way to protect against it is the same one already known and proven against other variants: avoid agglomerations, contacts and closed places, maintain hygiene, wear a mask and isolate yourself and test yourself if you have symptoms, among others.