Washington, Oct 22: A trial of two versions of Moderna’s COVID-19 booster shot in rhesus monkeys demonstrated effectiveness against all coronavirus variants, including Beta from South Africa with the ability to evade protection from vaccines, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said.
The researchers focused on the Beta variant because it has consistently shown the greatest ability to resist neutralization – by likely reducing vaccine effectiveness, the NIH said in a press release on Thursday.
While Delta has become the dominant coronavirus variant in the United States, because of its high transmissibility, Delta has only an intermediate ability to resist neutralization, the release said.
The researchers also determined that the vaccine developed to target the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and a slightly modified version of the vaccine targeting the Beta variant were equivalent in their ability to boost antibody responses and protect.
Researchers wrote in their report, published in the journal Science, that a Moderna booster vaccine in humans could improve the duration and potency of protection against upper and lower airway infection by any of the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Delta.
The US Food and Drug Administration this week authorized Moderna boosters for the elderly, people with compromised immunity and those in high-risk occupations such as healthcare.

(UNI)