Moderna to fortify vaccine against variant

A COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna weakens new variants of the coronavirus that have emerged in the UK and South Africa, the US drugmaker said on Monday.

But the vaccine provokes less of a response against the variant first reported in South Africa, and so the company said it is developing an alternative form of the vaccine that could be used as a booster shot.

A study by fellow drugmaker Pfizer released last week found that its vaccine probably protects against the British variant. More than two dozen countries have reported cases of the variants of the coronavirus found in South Africa and Brazil.

On Monday, the US reported the first known case in the country of the variant found in Brazil.

Health officials in Minnesota said the case involved "a Minnesota resident with recent travel history to Brazil", according to The Washington Post.

US President Joe Biden on Monday reinstated COVID-19 travel restrictions on most non-US travelers from Brazil, Ireland, the UK and 26 other European countries that allow travel across open borders. He also added South Africa. The new requirements go into effect on Tuesday.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said South Africa was added because of concerns the variant has spread beyond that nation.

Anthony Fauci, the US' top infectious disease expert, described as prudent Biden's decision to reinstate the travel restrictions and add South Africa.

As Moderna made its announcement, Merck, one of the world's leading vaccine makers, said it was stopping the development of both of its COVID-19 candidate vaccines.

Disappointing response

The New Jersey-based company said the shots generated a disappointing immune response, falling short of what is required to effectively protect people against the virus.

Merck said it would now focus on advancing two experimental COVID-19 drugs. The company said it expects test results for the pair of drugs in the coming weeks, and it could ask regulators to authorize use if the results are positive.

Regarding the virus variants, Moderna said that results from studies show that its vaccine produced immune-system agents known as neutralizing antibodies against "all key emerging variants tested", including B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, first identified in the UK and South Africa, respectively.

While the studies showed no significant impact on triggering an immune response to the variant first found in UK, there were sharply decreased antibody levels against the variant first found in South Africa, Moderna said.

"In the event that this virus continues to mutate in this direction, and a year from now is still circulating in some way, we think it's prudent that we have tools like a booster vaccine to address that," Stephen Hoge, Moderna's president, told The Wall Street Journal.

On the infections front, the US reported a 21 percent drop in new coronavirus cases last week, while the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 also fell. The country reported more than 130,000 new cases for Monday, the eighth consecutive day the daily total was below 200,000, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Fauci said the improvements appear to be a natural plateau after the holiday surge and not the effect of people who have been vaccinated.

In California, a hot spot where hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of COVID-19 patients, new cases fell 32 percent in the past week.