Moderna Chief Medical Officer Dr. Paul Burton said it’s good news that people who have been vaccinated and boosted with Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine are protected against the Omicron strain of the virus, but it’s something to continue to monitor.
On Wednesday, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that Moderna Covid-19 injections remain durable against the Omicron variant, but antibody protection declines and was six-fold lower six months after they were boosted.
“The data produced last night in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that if you get vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine and then get a boost, you get a nice, good level of protection with antibodies to the original Covid virus strain. , and also to the Omicron strain,” Burton said on DailyExpertNews’s “New Day” when asked about declining antibody protection after six months.
“But what we’re seeing by six months is that those levels are starting to fall. And if you radiate that and come to the conclusion that they’re going to keep going down, we know that those levels will probably be in the fall of this coming year, in 2022. will have fallen to an area where people may not have protection.” he continued.
“I think it’s good news now, people who have been vaccinated and boosted are protected, but we have to keep an eye on it,” Burton said.
Burton said he believes the end of the Omicron wave is in sight, but those who have not been vaccinated are still at risk.
“Vaccination and boosting almost eliminates that risk, but 40% of this country is still not fully vaccinated and certainly not boosted,” he said.
Omicron was a “curveball,” Burton said.
“It exploded all over the world, there’s a sub variant of that now, the number of hospitalizations in this country is perhaps the highest we’ve ever seen, the death of three and a half thousand people a day. So to protect against that, I think you need the maximum level of protection, and you need that for durability,” he added.
Moderna announced yesterday that it is continuing a Phase 2 clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine booster injection specific to the Omicron variant.
“Remember, it’s only two months from the time we all heard about Omicron, we’re starting this trial now, it’s important,” he said. “It will probably take about two months to actually get the data out, so by the middle of the year we should be able to move into full production and preparation to supply people.”