Moderna Booster Effective Against Some Variants, Study Suggests - The New York Times

A single dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine given as a booster rapidly increased the level of antibodies in people who had already been vaccinated, the company announced on Wednesday.

The antibodies produced by the booster were effective against the original form of the virus, as well as against the variants of concern first identified in South Africa and Brazil. A second booster specifically designed to counter B.1.351, the variant identified in South Africa, produced an even stronger immune response against that variant.

The results are from an early stage of Moderna’s trial of the boosters and have not yet been published or vetted by other scientists. Moderna plans to post the findings to the preprint server bioRxiv, the company said on Wednesday.

“We are encouraged by these new data, which reinforce our confidence that our booster strategy should be protective against these newly detected variants,” Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

The boosters, tested in 40 participants, were administered as a third shot six to eight months after the two-shot immunization with the current vaccine. Antibodies from the initial vaccination were detectable in 37 of those people, but in about half the participants, the antibodies performed poorly against the variants that have pummeled South Africa and Brazil. The boosters raised the levels of the antibodies against both variants, although the boosters were still slightly less effective than against the original form of the virus.

The mRNA platform used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can be readily tweaked, enabling the companies to produce newer versions within weeks. Moderna began modifying its vaccine to combat the variant identified in South Africa, after reports emerged that the existing vaccines are slightly less effective against that variant. The variant carries a mutation that helps the virus sidestep the immune system.

Moderna is testing three strategies for enhancing the immunity produced by the current vaccine: using the current vaccine as a booster; using the booster designed specifically to combat B.1.351; and a combination of the two in a single vaccine.

Wednesday’s announcement refers to results achieved two weeks after immunization with either a booster of the original vaccine or of the booster modified for B.1.351. The company plans to release data from later time points, and from tests of the combination booster, as they become available.

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May 06, 2021 at 04:27AM
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Moderna Booster Effective Against Some Variants, Study Suggests - The New York Times

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Covid vaccines can take on new coronavirus variants, studies show - CNN

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Covid vaccines can take on new coronavirus variants, studies show  CNN The Link Lonk


May 06, 2021 at 06:56AM
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Covid vaccines can take on new coronavirus variants, studies show - CNN

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Your COVID vaccine booster might be a patch or a pill. Or it might come with your flu shot. - KMOV.com

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV.com) --- It's been a question for some time now will people need another dose of the vaccine and if so, when?

The Chief Science Officer for the Biden Adminsitration told Congress last month that boosters are likely at some point. With the focus still being on getting people their first and second doses, at some point we'll see that booster shot.

The three main vaccine manufacturers - Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson - have plans for an additional shot in smaller doses. Moderna will begin trials combining the COVID vaccine with the seasonal flu shot. There's also a conscious effort to not rely as much on needles and syringes for the booster. That could mean a pill form or even patches.

So when? After doing some digging, News 4 learned that sometime after those six months, a person's immunity to the virus will drop off. It could be a year after, maybe three. But enough time hasn't passed to actually know.

"I do anticipate all these vaccines kind of having different points where they hit that peak, and then you see a drop in the immunity," said Dr. William Hartman of University of Wisconsin-Madison Health.

Researchers also say that a surge in variants could mean we need boosters sooner.

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May 05, 2021 at 06:50PM
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Your COVID vaccine booster might be a patch or a pill. Or it might come with your flu shot. - KMOV.com

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Space Force to clear refurbished Falcon 9 booster for upcoming GPS launch - SpaceNews

Col. Rob Bongiovi said a design validation of the booster that will launch GPS 3 SV05 will be completed this month

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force this month will complete a design review of a previously flown SpaceX Falcon 9 booster that launched a military GPS satellite to orbit last fall. The booster is expected to fly another GPS satellite sometime in June.

The upcoming launch of the fifth GPS 3 satellite known as SV05 will be the first mission under the national security space launch program to use a refurbished Falcon 9 booster. The satellite, made by Lockheed Martin, arrived at Cape Canaveral, Florida, last month. 

The booster that will fly GPS 3 SV05 launched GPS 3 SV04 November 5 and landed on a drone ship. SpaceX also recovered the booster after launching GPS 3 03 in June. SpaceX launched GPS 3 01 in December 2018 but the first stage was expended due to government requirements that did not make it possible to bring the booster back to Earth. 

Col. Rob Bongiovi, director of the Space and Missile Systems Center launch enterprise, said a “non-recurring design validation” of the booster that will launch GPS 3 SV05 will be completed in early May.

In a statement to SpaceNews, Bongiovi said the Space Force “is leveraging reusability to increase reliability, responsiveness, flexibility and affordability while maintaining an unprecedented record of mission success.”

The contracts with SpaceX to launch both GPS SV05 and SV06 in 2021 were renegotiated last year to allow reused boosters, saving the government about $64 million, Bongiovi said.

The non-recurring design validation of the booster that will fly SV05 has taken several months. Much of the work is done by The Aerospace Corp., which provides technical guidance and advice to the U.S. government. 

The process to validate the reused booster “was built off the foundation we used for the original expendable booster certification — and then we augmented it to account for elements that see extra duty cycles, thermal or dynamic loading events as part of the re-entry, landing and reuse,” Randy Kendall, Aerospace vice president of launch and enterprise operations, told SpaceNews. 

SpaceX, according to its latest count, has landed 75 first stages, and many of its boosters have flown multiple times. But reusability is a relatively new thing for national security launch. 

“We’ve only flown three NSSL missions with SpaceX, so we’re still building our experience base with them,” said Kendall.

“We have been following their commercial missions and are leveraging that heavily to build the database for the reuse certification,” he said. “Once we’re complete with our certification process, we don‘t consider the reused booster any higher risk than any other booster — by definition it meets the same reliability standard we hold all of the NSSL rockets to.”

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May 05, 2021 at 09:49PM
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Space Force to clear refurbished Falcon 9 booster for upcoming GPS launch - SpaceNews

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In-Depth: Doctors discuss the need for a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot - 10News

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - As San Diego nears the 1.1 million mark for people who are fully vaccinated, several local doctors think there will be a need for a third COVID-19 "booster" shot.

"At some point, I think it's very likely," says UC San Diego Chief of Infectious Diseases Dr. Davey Smith. "When that point is, I don't know."

A lot is unknown about the need for a booster shot, as the vaccines have only been around for six months. That's barely given researchers time to determine how long they provide complete protection against COVID-19.

Dr. Smith says it's a process that can take years.

"We follow a whole bunch of people who got a vaccine, we measure their immune responses, and then we look and see how often people are getting infected over time," he explains.

"Once we start seeing more infections below a certain level (of antibodies), then we're like, okay, so if somebody has this level of antibody and it dips below that, then perhaps we need a booster at that point," says Dr. Smith.

But measuring antibodies may not be the only indicator of the need for a booster. As the pandemic continues, doctors discover new mutations and variants of COVID-19. There is a strong possibility one of those variants could be resistant to the vaccine, requiring a booster.

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH DR. HAI SHAO ON BOOSTER SHOTS:

"Some of the mutations might be able to evade the immune protection," says Sharp Chula Vista Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Hai Shao. "As a result, our neutralizing antibodies needs to be tweaked, to be made specifically against the new variants of viruses so that the level of protection can be modified and sustained."

Dr. Shao compares it to the flu, where the yearly vaccine includes several variants. He believes there may be a need for that type of vaccine for COVID-19.

"The likelihood is high," Dr. Shao says. "The question is when do we need the first booster, and how often do we need it after that."

In separate interviews last month, the heads of both Pfizer and Moderna said their vaccines would probably need booster shots. They did not specify when.

Current studies show the vaccines offer protection for at least six months and are effective against all known variants.

Research beyond that is ongoing.

In the meantime, Dr. Shao and Dr. Smith say everyone must get their initial doses of the vaccine to help achieve herd immunity.

"It is important for us to focus our attention and make sure that people who have not gotten the vaccine yet get it in time," says Dr. Shao.

"When you get a vaccine, you're protecting your community," says Dr. Smith. "I really want to get that message out."

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May 05, 2021 at 08:02PM
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In-Depth: Doctors discuss the need for a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot - 10News

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UK still looking at COVID booster shot options - vaccines minister - Reuters UK

British Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi speaks at the House of Commons in London, Britain February 4, 2021. UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/Handout via REUTERS

British officials are currently looking at which COVID-19 vaccines would offer the best booster shot for vulnerable people later this year and no decisions have been taken yet, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Wednesday.

"The clinicians haven't yet made their decision when they will need to boost, whether to give more immunity to the most vulnerable, to increase the durability of the protection, or to deal with a variant," Zahawi told Sky News.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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May 05, 2021 at 01:52PM
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UK still looking at COVID booster shot options - vaccines minister - Reuters UK

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SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites, sticks booster landing at sea - WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX teams at Kennedy Space Center launched the 26th dedicated Falcon 9 rocket with 60 Starlink satellites Tuesday afternoon.

The liftoff at 3:01 p.m. from launchpad 39A brings SpaceX closer to 2,000 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit.

Elon Musk’s company is using the satellites to provide internet, slowly adding new locations with plans to eventually offer the Wi-Fi worldwide.

About 8 minutes after liftoff the rocket’s booster returned to land on the recovery droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Atlantic Ocean.

Sea conditions were a concern ahead of liftoff but did not appear to impact the landing which marked the 9th successful recovery for this particular piece of rocket hardware.

Meanwhile in Texas, SpaceX is aiming to perform another high-altitude test flight of its Starship spaceship prototype. Previous flight have ended in explosion after landing but SpaceX hopes this prototype called Serial No. 15 survives its flight.

An attempt Tuesday was scrubbed but could happen later in the week.

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May 05, 2021 at 02:30AM
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SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites, sticks booster landing at sea - WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando

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