Kai KupferschmidtScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.News from U.S.
manufacturer Moderna that its COVID-19 vaccine is still “expected to be protective” against a virus variant first detected in South Africa came as a relief to scientists and the public.
But the 25 January announcement included a caveat: Antibodies triggered by the vaccine appear to be a little less potent against the new variant, named B.1.351, than the one the vaccine was developed for.
So researchers were perhaps even more relieved to hear the company will start development of booster shots tailored to B.1.351 and other variants.“These are exactly the steps that I hoped to see,” says virologist Trevor Bedford.