Moderna CEO says current vaccines likely to be less effective against new COVID variant

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Moderna CEO says current vaccines likely to be less effective against new COVID variant

St phane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said in an interview published Tuesday that current vaccines for COVID 19 will likely be less effective against the new omicron variant.

He said he thinks it is going to be a material drop. I just don't know how much data we need to wait for the data. A recent Stanford study found that the Moderna jab was 56.6% effective against the Delta variant, according to the Financial Times.

President Biden said that the variant was a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. He said he was not considering a widespread U.S. lockdown and instead urged mask-wearing and vaccinations, even though a federal judge blocked his administration from enforcing a requirement that thousands of health care workers in 10 states get the shot.

The World Health Organization said there were a lot of uncertainties about the omicron variant. It added that preliminary evidence raises the possibility that the variant has mutations that could help it evade an immune-system response and increase its ability to spread from one person to another.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reacted to the potential threat by urging everyone 18 and older to get booster shots because strong immunity will likely prevent serious illness.