Moderna vaccine lasts at least 6 months, according to new study
HOUSTON, TX – DECEMBER 21: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Medical staff member Anita Pandey prepares to administer the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the United Memorial Medical Center on December 21, 2020 in Houston, Texas. Vaccinations in the U.S. began last week with healthcare workers, with at least 556,000 doses reportedly administered. (Photo by Go Nakamura/Getty Images)
maylen
BOSTON (AP) — New research suggests the protection the Moderna vaccine gives against COVID-19 lasts for at least six months.
The report Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine echoes what Pfizer said last week about its vaccine, which works in a similar way.
Both reports were based on follow-up tests in dozens of people who received the shots during studies that led to the vaccines’ use. However those studies were done before troubling new variants, or versions of the coronavirus, had emerged and started to spread.
A separate report in the medical journal adds to concern about the variants. Scientists measured antibodies that can block the virus in 50 people who had been given the Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccines that were developed in China. Many showed total or partial loss of effectiveness against a virus variant first detected in South Africa.
The vaccines still seemed to protect against a variant first found in the United Kingdom that is now rapidly spreading in the United States and elsewhere.
Pfizer and Moderna have said they are working to update their vaccines, or possibly design a booster shot, in case they’re needed against variants.
You can read the full study below:
