September 15, 2021

expert reaction to interim analysis looking at the safety and efficacy of Moderna booster doses including some participants receiving a variant-modified dose

A study, published in Nature Medicine, shows interim analysis of the safety and efficacy of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine booster doses including some participants receiving a variant-modified dose.

Prof Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology, University of Nottingham, said:

“This confirms that an additional boost of an mRNA vaccine, in this case a high or lower dose of the Moderna vaccine, increases the level of virus-killing antibodies in the blood, especially those able to kill variants of concern. This is true irrespective of whether the vaccine spike protein sequence is matched to the original strain of virus or the Beta variant.

“Whilst the study stopped short of showing whether it increased protection against infection or disease, it would be reasonable to assume that the higher antibody levels would be beneficial.

“This is one more piece of growing evidence to show that the decision to give boosters to our most vulnerable people over the coming weeks and months was a sensible one.”

‘Safety and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 variant mRNA vaccine boosters in healthy adults: an interim analysis’ by Angela Choi was published in Nature Medicine on Wednesday 15 September

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01527-y

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

Prof Jonathan Ball: Receives UKRI funding to develop next generation COVID vaccines.