White House coronavirus adviser says vaccine companies plan to update shots to address variants

Primary tabs

Thu, 2021-02-18 13:57 — mike kraft

White House coronavirus adviser official discusses plans by vaccine companies cope with COVID-19 variants

Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser on the coronavirus response, said vaccine-producing companies plan to update their shots to address variants of the virus.

During a Washington Post live interview Thursday, he said the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines “work well for” the most prominent variant spreading throughout the United States, which is the one first identified in Britain.

He said that while the vaccines appear less effective against the variants first identified in Brazil and South Africa, they do produce some antibodies.

“The vaccines are less effective but, importantly, above a threshold — and the threshold is, does it work or does it not. It does work,” he said. “It creates fewer antibodies, but this is mostly good news because they still continue to work.”

He said the vaccine-developing companies are set to continue to “update” the shots.

“Each of the vaccine companies — and I’ve talked to all of them, both the ones approved and the candidates — have plans to continue to update their vaccines, and if need be, create boosters down the road if there continue to be additional mutants, as there likely will be,” Slavitt said.

“This is a matter of science adapting its processes and keeping up and keeping track,” he added.

#

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags: