Moderna working to create COVID-19 vaccine booster to protect against variants

ATLANTA — One of the makers of the COVID-19 vaccine said they are working on a booster shot to help protect against the new variants of the virus that are now popping up in Georgia.

Eric Lowe said the new strains of COVID-19 make him more eager than ever to become eligible for a vaccine.

“I was pretty active before all this happened and I’d like to get back to the pre-pandemic way of life,” Lowe said. “It’s not the ideal thing, especially we’re in the heart of winter now and it’s kind of scary.

He hopes to be one of the 675,000 Georgians who have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine soon.

Both Moderna and Pfizer said their vaccines have been tested against the different strains of the virus and are effective.

On a conference call Monday, Moderna’s president Stephen Hoge said there are seven variants of the virus they’re studying.

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“The vaccine appears to be fully effective against all strains we’ve tested,” Hoge said.

But its vaccine may have a slightly lesser effect against what’s known as the South African strain.

So the company announced the development of a booster shot specifically for that highly transmissible strain out of caution.

“We think it’s prudent to plan to do that, and evaluate that today, as it will give us more tools in the future,” Hoge said.

Dr. Mark Thompkins is a professor at the college of veterinary medicine at the University of Georgia.

He told Channel 2′s Matt Johnson that researchers expected COVID-19 to mutate like all viruses at the start of the pandemic.

“Because they replicate and transmit so much, just like flu and other viruses, have the opportunity to change very quickly,” Thompkins said.

He said there’s still plenty to learn about the vaccines that are not even a year old yet. But he said the public should have confidence in the vaccines’ ability to protect against the different strains.

“The data that I’ve seen show that those vaccines protect against that variants. We need to keep on testing that. But it certainly should not dissuade people from getting vaccinated,” Thompkins said.

As for Lowe, he hopes by the time he’s eligible there will be enough doses and appointments for him.

“It needs to reach as many people as possible. We just got to get to the point where we can make an appointment so we can actually get it done,” Lowe said.

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Cox Media Group