Pharmaceutical firm Moderna announced Monday that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine appears to offer good protection against the contagious variant Omicron.
Moderna said laboratory tests have shown that half a booster dose increased the number of antibodies able to fight the Omicron variant by 37 times.
A full booster dose offered even more robust protection, with 83 times the antibodies, but it also caused more of the usual side effects.
The half booster dose should be offered in the majority of cases, but the full dose is recommended for people with weakened immune systems.
Moderna released these preliminary data in a press release, but they have not yet been reviewed by the scientific community. Recent tests by the United States National Institutes of Health, however, have come to similar conclusions.
Pfizer’s tests had also shown that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine produced a comparable jump in antibodies against the Omicron variant. The vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which use messenger RNA technology, are being used by several countries around the world to fight the pandemic.
Taken together, the available scientific evidence supports the argument of officials calling on the public to get a booster dose as soon as possible.
Antibody levels predict a vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing coronavirus infection, but they are only one facet of the immune response. Other studies show that vaccines should provide good protection against severe illness if infected.
Moderna and Pfizer are both developing vaccines that specifically target the Omicron variant, should it ever be needed.
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